Astroturfing is an English-language term
referring to political, advertising,
or public relations campaigns that are
formally planned by an organization, but designed to mask its
origins to create the impression of being spontaneous, popular
"grassroots" behavior. The term refers
to AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic
carpeting designed to look like natural grass.
The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a
political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to
some political entity—a politician, political group, product,
service or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions
of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals,
by both overt ("outreach", "awareness", etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing
may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or
highly organized professional groups with financial backing from
large corporations, unions, non-profits, or
activist organizations. Very often the efforts are conducted by
political consultants who also specialize in opposition research. Beneficiaries are
not "grass root" campaigners but distant organizations that
orchestrate such campaigns.
Word origin
The term is said to have been used first in this context by
former US Senator Lloyd
Bentsen of Texas. It is wordplay based on grassroots democracy efforts – truly
spontaneous undertakings largely sustained by private persons – as
opposed to politicians, governments, corporations, or public
relations firms. AstroTurf refers to the bright green artificial
grass used in some sports stadiums, so "astroturfing"
refers to imitating or faking popular grassroots opinion or
behaviour.
This practice is specifically prohibited by the code of
ethics of the Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA), and the Public Relations Institute of
Australia (PRIA), the national associations for members
of the public relations and communication profession in the
United
States and Australia.[1] As
a private organization, the most significant punishment the PRSA
and PRIA can hand out to members who engage in astroturfing is
revocation of membership in the associations. Although the International Association of Business
Communicators (IABC) does not specifically mention
astroturfing, it does require honest communication.
US Senator Lloyd Bentsen, believed to have coined
the term, was quoted by the Washington Post in 1985 using it
to describe a "mountain of cards and letters" sent to his Senate
office to promote insurance industry interests, which Bentsen
dismissed as "generated mail."[2]
The National Smokers Alliance, an early
astroturf group created by Burson-Marsteller on behalf of tobacco
giant Philip Morris,[3]
worked to influence Federal legislation in 1995 by organizing
mailings and running a phone-bank urging people to call or write to
politicians expressing their opposition to laws aimed at
discouraging teens from starting to smoke.[4]
In 1998, a combination of television ads and phone-banks were
used to simulate "grassroots" opposition to a bill aimed at
discouraging teenage smoking. According to The New
York Times, "Those smokers who are reached by phone
banks sponsored by cigarette makers, or who call the 800 number
shown in television ads, are patched through to the senator of
their choice."[5]
In 2003, apparent "grass-roots" letters favouring Republican
Party policies appearing in local newspapers around the
US were denounced as "astroturf" when Google searches
revealed that identical letters were printed with different (local)
signatures. The signers were electronically submitting pre-written
letters from a political website that offered 5 "GOPoints" for sending one of their
letters to a local paper plus an additional 2 "GOPoints" if the
letter was published.[6]
Black propaganda is information that
purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is
actually from the opposing side. Most astroturfing is black
propaganda in that the identity of the source is falsified.
However, the ostensible source of the evidence planted is usually
not a grassroots organization. When black propaganda uses the same
means as astroturfing, the distinction is less clear, as in the
case of forged letters being sent to congressman Tom
Perriello by a Washington lobbying firm working against
2009 clean energy legislation.
Journalist Ben Smith of The
Politico has observed, "Interest groups across the
spectrum have grown expert at locating, enraging and turning out
authentic Americans. And the operatives behind the crowds say
there’s nothing wrong with a practice as old as American
politics."[7]
Regarding the 2009 health care debate, author and blogger Ryan
Sager has argued in a New York
Times editorial:
"Organizing isn’t cheating. Doing everything in your power to get
your people to show up is basic politics."[8]
In business, astroturfing is one form of stealth marketing, which can include
the manipulation of viral
marketing. Several examples are described as "undercover marketing" in the
documentary The
Corporation.[9]
The term "astroturfing" is also used to describe public
relations activities aimed at "falsely creating the impression of
independent, popular support by means of an orchestrated and
disguised public relations exercise....designed to give the
impression of spontaneous support for an
idea/product/company/service," according to the Chartered Institute of Public
Relations (CIPR) Social Media Guidelines,[10]
which cautions members that an astroturfing campaign is
"self-evidently likely to contradict the CIPR Code."
It has become easier to structure a commercial astroturfing
campaign in the electronic era because the cost and effort to send
an e-mail (especially a pre-written, sign-your-name-at-the-bottom
e-mail) is so low. Companies may use a boiler room full of telephones and
computers where hired activists locate people and groups who create
enthusiasm for the specified cause. Also, the use of psychographics allows hired supporters
to persuade their targeted
audience.
