I think JE definitely does things to pimp his series. There was a whole big thing on Twitter where he tweeted things about the Season 1 mid-season finale (the whole "OMG, Peter has the ring" cliffhanger), and about the network wanting him to change what was going to happen after that based on fan reaction, and then some of the tweets "disappeared," and people were all intrigued, and he later more or less admitted that it was all a ploy for media attention.

That said, I'm not sure what you mean in this case. Are you saying that Jeff doesn't really buy his "born bad" spiel, but he thinks it will bring viewers in? Cause I'm not sure I get that.