Sometimes I feel like if I do so I’m basically serving as an ad, and I don’t really care for that, especially if later I find that the business was scummy in some ways (which is often the case, especially later as it changes leadership/ownership).
If you do, how do you deal with it?
I think some brands have earned a good reputation, and I don’t think you should feel bad for promoting them when asked if you genuinely believe they are aligned with a cause you support (fair wages, good customer service, high quality product, locally sourced, open and transparent operations could be a few examples). That reputation is theirs to squander from shitty management decisions in the future, that’s not on you to control.
I have felt the feeling you express in threads like this one. In that case I made sure to wait 12 hours before putting my answer, that way my brand namedrop wouldn’t be voted to the top as if it was a “Promoted” comment. Someone who is looking for that will find honest recommendations from me but I’m not trying to act like I’m being sponsored.
Your last sentence gets at part of what I was thinking in writing this question. I see where others are coming from when talking among friends or not awkwardly dropping in products/titles, but it’s that limbo space when either talking among acquaintances or online with strangers where it gets murkier to me.
I think some of this also comes from the posting culture you see if you browse microblogging platforms, even apart from influencer-types, which I think comes from the constraints of a lower character count to some degree.