Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like I mentioned, this was really nothing more than an experiment. I certainly would not have done that if I was trying to generate buzz for a legitimate company. These were the efforts of a broke college student who thought it interesting to see if he could ride the swine flu hysteria. And to a certain extent, I was able to ride it. It was a great learning experience.
I have to reiterate the grandparent poster's point... The tactics you used might be great to generate buzz in one week, but they would suck to generate buzz over 6 months, because once everyone finds you're basically abusing forums for your SEO, lying to journalists, and spamming twitter, they won't want to deal with you on principle. So this works for a throw-away company that you don't care about. That said, I'm do…
I know that this is a sensitive point, particularly on HN where people tend to judge companies by the merits of their pproducts and not on their ability to market them, but cheating gets results. It's of course a fine line, but if you don't get caught and attract new customers then it's good for business.
Sad as it may be, if you want to make serious money you often have to do things you wouldn't normally do, including black-hat SEO, promising more than you can deliver and squeezing your competitor by spreading FUD and rumors.
I'm not saying that this is the only way to do business, and there are many examples of companies with an impeccable moral record that are doing well. But the bottom line is that shady tactics work if you don't get caught. And more often than not you don't.