Some facts: Drivewatch is a single dash cam device sold by Drivewatch.com at a single price whereas pier28 is the handle for a dash cam eshop owner which sells a lot of different stuff. So Drivewatch is one product brand and the same person who uses the Drivewatch Reddit handle. Pier28 is the handle for a guy who co mods the dash cam subreddit and a few other dash cam forums, but the products he sells are different brands.
1) Reddit charges as little as $1.5 CPM for a minimum of twenty bucks for a targeted Subreddit ad. This means that for every one thousand times a certain ad is viewed on a Subreddit, Reddit charges a buck and a half, at a twenty buck minimum. You can meet this minimum a number of different ways, since the ads themselves are self served. So basically, someone paid to get around a ban with an ad campaign. They leveraged their product brand on an attack on an individual brand. Interesting.
2) Pier28 and Drivewatch are having a bit of a go at each other right now with detailed information and screenshots of modmail on other private dashcam forums. Pier tried to let it rest but I doubt that worked. I dare not summon their Reddit handles because it might catch me a ban, but the real good stuff is off-site anyways. I'll remove it if asked, but it's pretty old anyways. And one thing is clear: Drivewatch was muted on Reddit and perhaps banned for breaking Reddit TOS by not only demonstrably slamming subs directly with his own ads in long paragraphs, but for copypasting in user name mentions in different threads in /r/dashcam following a script to advertise his Drivewatch 380g dashcam. So he'd go to threads and spam individual users with recommendations to buy his Drivewatch dash cams.
So while Piers28 might not be blameless, Drivewatch was certainly breaking the TOS and sub rules to go after a competitor in this manner. And to boost himself by direct marketing individual Reddit users with ads is very much against the TOS and this is exactly why.
3) Drivewatch sells only one camera according to their website, while Pier28 sells multiple cameras, none of which are Drivewatch dashcams. So even if pier28 had a shop to eat up dash cam sales from their sub on Reddit, Drivewatch didn't even sell the same dash cams. This is important because while Drivewatch only markets and sells one branded dash cam in a one size fits all manner, pier28 only retains exclusive US rights to distribute some of their Streetguardian line of dash cameras. Pier28 sells multiple different dash cameras and accessories for the more experienced user and does not own the branding but Drivewatch owns the branding, marketing, and distribution of their product. So while Pier28 might not be on the level, Drivewatch is equally shady for trying to establish its dash cam device brand against pier28 as a user brand. Essentially there is likely nothing wrong with StreetGuardian or Panorama dash cams, but Drivewatch is using the fact they are distributed through pier28 to smear several competing devices as well. This is an especially bad idea for Drivewatch because, according to Drivewatch, the same company makes all three different devices! It's probably an inadvisable idea to badmouth your own products hardware manufacturer.
I actually kind of get Drivewatch's point. It can be very hard to break into an established market as a new seller. But Drivewatch as a brand is essentially trying to use direct marketing to compete against Pier28 as a user. The reason this is a bad idea is because direct marketing (mailers via email, messages, coupons) works best when a business is trying to keep repeat customers on brand. Drivewatch used an inbound marketing tactic (a call to action attack ad) to try and gain new customers but fucked it totally by confusing their message with direct marketing strategies and poor image. They gave no call to action in their attack except "pier is bad," but that only gives someone a reason not to buy from pier. Nothing in that ad gave anyone a reason to support Drive watch the brand or Drivewatch the user instead. All it offered is a coupon, which assumes the reader is already their customer because... Pier28 is bad. But no matter how something is, if you don't offer a competing narrative, you'll lose. And a coupon doesn't make someone want to buy something new, the idea of using that coupon does. Preferably on something you'd but anyway.
Drivewatch is a total brand here as device, store, and sellers are all the product. But it's at a major disadvantage because pier28 is only a user, selling other brands and products. That's why this is fucked, because even if Driverwatch the seller is right about pier28 the seller, Driverwatch the product still has to compete with other products. Pier28 the person could suck hardcore against Driverwatch the brand, but no one will care Driverwatch the product sucks. Driverwatch set itself up as too many things when all pier28 needed to be was a person with a web presence. He branded himself.
To be honest if I were Driverwatch the person, I'd take this as a marketing lesson. It's too fucked up to offer much else but a small, cautionary tale about how not to sell electronic devices, and how not to manage your brand and attract new customers and goodwill.