Well, this is interesting. Actual evidence of a Russell Group university trying to poach applicants interested in studying at a post-92. Search for "MMU history degree" on Google and you get a prominent ad for the "Russell Group University" in Southampton.

Maybe I'm being overly cynical, I thought. I searched instead for a "Manchester history degree" at my local RG institution and no such ad came up. Clearly targeted.

James and Charlotte have come up with an explanation of how this might happen without explicit targeting, which hadn't occurred to me earlier: https://twitter.com/JamesBSumner/status/1254383892259377152?s=20

So perhaps I jumped to conclusions a bit with the first tweet in this thread, but I still think it's unhelpful in the current circumstances if a search for a specific post-92 degree throws up an ad saying 'hey, come to the Russell Group instead'.