There is probably some validity to the idea that it "looks like something is going on" because one of the published criteria (by Stereophile) for selecting review products is that the company be well-established. This is common sense because they don't want to review products that nobody can find or won't be supported a year from now because the company turned out to be something of a fly-by-night operation. That being said, a good sign that a company is well-established is that they advertise in the major publications.
Will a Full Page Ad Guarantee a Review?
Do you think there is a correlation between the two? Zucable has a full page ad in a major pub. How many months will that have to run to guarantee a review?