It is really begging for merit, may be directly or maybe indirectly.
Imho it's worse than begging: it's a way to fool people into meriting him (for a promise).
Just imagine. What if the campaign will never happen? Why would somebody advertise beer here? It can easily said the friend has change his mind and this guy remains with nice amount of merit (if enough people fall for that).
And indeed, after pointing this out, that part of the post was deleted. Scared him?
