Tampa realtor shocks TikTok with claim that she falsely accused a man of cheating as a bizarre but effective ‘marketing tactic’ for her business

A realtor who revealed the bizarre marketing strategy she claims to have used to get people to check out her business has been called out by netizens on TikTok for her controversial tactics. The woman, who is based in Tampa, explained in a video how she would comment on the posts of newly engaged couples, implying that the husband was cheating, to trick curious individuals into clicking on her account.

The video was originally posted by the account “@marlywaltersrealtor” earlier this year but has only caught the attention of people on TikTok in the past few days. In the video, which has received hundreds of thousands of views, Marly spoke about seeing a man posting his engagement photos on Instagram. 

“I swear I didn’t even know he was dating anyone,” she claimed before going on to say that she commented on his post, “Hey, you need to call me. I didn’t even know y’all were engaged.” The wording of her comment strongly suggests that she knows the couple and that she’s possibly having an affair with the man. However, Marly revealed to her TikTok viewers that she didn’t know the couple at all: “Do I know who these people are? No.”

She claimed that her comment resulted in hundreds of people checking out her page, saying that those people would now be aware that she was a realtor in the Tampa Bay area. Essentially, the controversial comment was just one big marketing scheme.

People disagreed with Marly’s marketing tactics

Of course, many on TikTok saw Marly’s “genius” strategy as unethical. “I think that is mean. This world truly has some evil people in it,” wrote one commenter. Another asked about her licensing board in Tampa Bay, presumably to report her. Another TikToker by the name of Brittani Lizabeth made a response video in which she called Marly’s actions “One of the most unprofessional things I’ve ever come across.”

“You’re telling me that your marketing and business strategy is to make people think that a man who just got engaged is potentially cheating on his partner?” Brittani asked. She went on to talk about the long-term damage such a controversial strategy could have on the couple, suggesting that even if the 400+ people who checked out her page realized she was a realtor, they might still believe that the man was cheating.

Viewers claimed that the comments amounted to defamation and also noted that the controversial marketing strategy was becoming a trend, as they claimed to have seen other businesses employ similar tactics. “I’ve seen a few videos of this, one from a barber, one from a photographer, this one. It’s such a weird “trend”. It’s not cute or funny,” wrote one person.

While Brittani admitted that it’s possible that Marly’s video was meant as a joke, she claimed that even if it was, it wasn’t funny or clever.

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