A TikTok user posted a short clip on the app with very serious allegations against her boss at TESCO. In a very long caption, she went into great detail about how her boss had been harassing and practically stalking her at the workplace. So she called the cops on her boss, which most of her commenters were on board with. Where she confused people is that the post then goes on to explain how and when best to shop at TESCO.
Stalking will always be a serious issue that some people in society have unfortunately been left to deal with. There have been recent stories that cover this disturbing, long-standing trend — one about a woman who simply treated a co-worker well, only to gain a stalker from that point on. Another one in California even had a man break into a woman’s home in the middle of the night to suck her toes. The harassment that comes from these types of people cannot be understated.
For the TikTok creator, szncristal, however, there were a few red flags. She told her story about how she works long shifts at TESCO, trying her best to be a great teammate and a good employee. But she apparently felt something was off when her boss kept coming to her workstation and observing her for extended periods of time.
She continued, “Until, while I was cleaning his office, I saw zoomed-in footage of myself working. Not regular security angles. Not wide store cameras. Zoomed in.” That’s when she allegedly called the cops on her boss. But that’s where the first red flag comes in — in her video on TikTok, it’s all AI.
The second major red flag was that she suddenly started giving her followers the best times to shop at TESCO. She even itemized the list. In one bullet point, she wrote, “Yellow stickers = huge savings on fresh stuff. Meals, bakery, meat, salads near use-by dates drop up to 75–90% off.” On another, she added, “And here’s what stirred drama for me: There’s a site called Tesgift.uk that runs product feedback promos tied to Tesco.” And on and on.
If you’re wondering why she was doing this, apparently it was to “get back” at her employer and give customers little-known deals. In the comments, nobody had any patience for this. People just assumed this is a new-age way of doing marketing.
The only problem with people who “game” the algorithm like this is that now people will take it less seriously the next time someone is actually sharing their experience about a boss who harasses employees. The clearest indication that her post is just marketing is another post that went up — also AI — with yet another harassment story and a tie-in to why this should make you want to visit TESCO.
There is creative marketing, and then there’s something else entirely — this falls firmly in the latter. TikTok is obviously geared toward human stories, and it was only a matter of time before marketers shoehorned their products into that space. But this isn’t clever. It’s manipulative, and it risks turning real trauma into just another sales tactic.
Published: Mar 27, 2026 01:58 pm