In politics and advertising, the term astroturfing describes formal public relations (PR) campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the “AstroTurf” (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate “fake grassroots” support.
The goal of such campaign is to disguise the agenda of a client as an independent public reaction to some political entity —a politician, political group, product, service, 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 anything from an individual pushing their own personal agenda through to highly organised professional groups with financial backing from large corporations.
Word origin
The term, said to have been used first in this context by former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen (Democrat-Texas), is wordplay based on “grassroots democracy” efforts, which are truly spontaneous undertakings largely sustained by private persons (not politicians, governments, corporations, or public relations firms). “AstroTurf” refers to the bright green artificial grass used in some sports stadiums, so “astroturfing” refers to artificial grassroots efforts.
Techniques
A form of propaganda, astroturfing attempts to selectively affect the emotions of the public, whether trying to win a campaign, be the top music record seller, the top book seller, or gain political support.
The most frequently identified cases of astroturfing are found in recent political history. The concept itself is older and was widely used by the Soviet Communists.
Astroturfing techniques usually consist of a few people discreetly posing as mass numbers of activists advocating a specific cause. Supporters or employees will manipulate the degree of interest through letters to the editor, e-mails, blog posts, crossposts, trackbacks, etc. They are instructed on what to say, how to say it, where to send it, and how to make it appear that their indignation, appreciation, joy, or hate is entirely spontaneous and independent. This makes their campaign seem “real” rather than the product of an orchestrated campaign. Local newspapers are often victims of astroturfing when they publish letters identical to those received and printed by other newspapers.
It has become easier to structure an 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 that create enthusiasm for the specified cause. Also, the use of psychographics allows hired supporters to persuade their targeted audience. This correlates with the merge-purge technique that combines information about an individual from multiple databases. Companies can then turn hypothetical supporters into activists for the cause. This leads to misuse of the Internet, for one person is able to play the role of a whole group of like-minded people (see also Internet sockpuppet).
News consolidation services, such as Google News, as well as PR Watch and Sourcewatch, have made it easier to spot such campaigns through the search of specific key phrases that bring up results showing identical letters, articles, blogs, websites, etc.
Examples
Early examples
At the turn of the 20th century, it was common to have newspapers in major American cities sponsored by local political parties. Some were open about this practice, but many of these relationships were hidden. Other examples include political “clubs” which front for voter fraud and intimidation, letter-writing campaigns organized by local ward bosses, and some union-organized political activities.
In one case, documented in the book All the President’s Men, the Committee to Re-Elect the President orchestrated several campaigns of “public support” for decisions made by President Nixon in the period preceding the 1972 election, including telegrams to the White House and an apparently independent advertisement placed in The New York Times.
Another case is that of Bolivian dictator General Luis Garcia Meza Tejada, who at the end of his promised one-year rule staged a televised rally and declared “Bueno, me quedo,” or in English: “All right, I’ll stay.”
Manipulation of public opinion was also used in the Soviet Union. Political decisions were often preceded by massive campaigns of orchestrated ‘letters from workers’ (?????? ??????????, (pisma trudyashchikhsya)) which were quoted and published in newspapers and radio. In Stalin’s era, massive “public demonstrations” were organized against “the enemies of the people”; those attending were often forced or intimidated into doing so.
Examples from the 1990s
In 1991 a memo from PR firm van Kloberg & Associates to Zairian ambassador Tatanene Tanata referring to the “Zaire Program 1991″ was leaked. The memo outlines steps the firm was taking to improve the image of Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime, including placing dozens of letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, and articles in the American press praising the Zairian government.
In 1998, Paul Reitsma, former member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, was accused of writing letters to newspapers under assumed names praising himself and attacking his political opponents. A Parksville newspaper had asked a former RCMP handwriting expert to compare a sample of Reitsma’s handwriting to that of letters to the editor submitted by a “Warren Betanko”, and then ran a story entitled “MLA Reitsma is a liar and we can prove it”. For this, Reitsma was expelled from the caucus of the British Columbia Liberal Party and then compelled to resign his seat after it became obvious that an effort to recall him would succeed.
Recent examples
* In 2001, the Los Angeles Times accused Microsoft of astroturfing when hundreds of similar letters were sent to newspapers voicing disagreement with the United States Department of Justice and its antitrust suit against Microsoft. The letters, prepared by Americans for Technology Leadership, had in some cases been mailed from deceased citizens or nonexistent addresses. Similar allegations were levelled against the “Freedom to Innovate Network”, originally portrayed as an independent grassroots organization but web-hosted by Microsoft.
* USA Next, a seniors’ organization that supports the privatization of Social Security, has also been accused of being an astroturf group funded by corporate interests, especially those of pharmaceutical companies.
* In recent years, organizations of plaintiffs’ attorneys have established front groups such as Victims and Families United and the Center for Justice and Democracy to oppose tort reform.
* A supposedly grassroots “teen” protest against alcohol advertising held in Washington at the Beer Institute was actually organized by the National Youth Advocacy Assembly, a group funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (National Youth Advocacy Assembly)
* In March 2006, a supposed environmental group called the Save Our Species Alliance was exposed as a front group that was created by a timber lobbyist to weaken the Endangered Species Act. The campaign director for this group is Tim Wigley, the Executive Director of Pac/West Communications. Wigley was also the campaign director for Project Protect, another front group that spent $2.9 million to help pass President Bush’s Healthy Forests legislation which has been criticized for its pro-industry bias. “The Save Our Species Alliance web site portrays itself as a grassroots organization against the Endangered Species Act (the word “grassroots” is mentioned no less than five times on their “Take Action Now” page), but is criticized by environmentalists for being a front group for wealthy cattle and timber interests which consider Federal environmental legislation an impediment to profit.
* In the 2005 general election in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party packed press conferences with party workers who appeared as genuine, concerned members of the public. The Labour Party, The Conservative Party and the Liberal Democratic Party workers also sent letters to the local press purporting to be ordinary members of the public; all of the letters fit a common template covering specific party issues. Aside from deceiving the readership, such tactics also deny space to genuine local residents. (New Labour’s use of astroturf tactics was exposed by a UK Channel Four team with the use of an undercover reporter, shown in May 2005 - see below.)
* Slobodan Miloševic, a former authoritarian leader of Yugoslavia, also used astroturfing by broadcasting, on state television, numerous “letters of support” containing emotional expressions of love and support for his policies, creating an artificial impression of legitimacy.
* Wake Up Wal-Mart is an organization that claims to be “grass roots” but is funded and run by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The group’s website pages are clearly marked as copyrighted by the UFCW Union, but public statements emphasize instead its “grassroots” nature.
* Wal-Mart Watch was originally funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). According to the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart Watch is mainly funded by Five Stones, a 501(c)(3) organization that received $2,775,000 in 2005 from the SEIU. The Wal-Mart Watch “About” page clearly discloses connection with Five Stones, the name and SEIU affiliation of its President Andy Stern, and the names and affiliations of other board members. The SEIU reportedly gave Five Stones $1 million in 2004 to start Wal-Mart Watch.
* One recent project of Working Families for Wal-Mart is its website PaidCritics.com, devoted to exposing the astroturf origins of such Wal-Mart critics as Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch. In a nice touch of irony, Business Week recently disclosed that despite its own grass-roots imagery, “Working Families for Wal-Mart” was created, run, and paid for by Wal-Mart’s PR firm Edelman. The “About” page of Working Families for Wal-Mart does not reveal the group’s connection to Wal-Mart; the group’s mission is said to include “fostering open and honest dialogue”.
* Verizon aired ads in spring 2006 where a group set out on a cross-country quest to film a documentary finding out why consumers favored Verizon.
* In May 2006, SanDisk launched a site called iDon’t, appearing to be a blog started by individuals opposed to Apple’s domination of the portable music player market. It’s actually an advertisement mechanism for their own device, the Sansa e200.
* In October 2006, Nestlé, the manufacturer of “Nesquik” powdered milk flavoring, sponsored the “Lactose Tolerance” campaign, where activists tried in the manner of Greenpeace and Children International to solicit public support for flavored milks as equal to regular milk.
* The Center for Consumer Freedom which claims to be a “nonprofit coalition of restaurants, food companies, and consumers working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices” is a corporate front group targeting actual grassroots organizations, such as PETA (referred to as “animal liberation activists”), Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (labeled “food police.”) The Center for Consumer Freedom sponsors a number of anti-activism Internet campaigns, including ActivistCash.com, AnimalScam.com, CSPIScam.com, PetaKillsAnimals.com, PhysicianScam.com.
* In August 2006, a science journalist for the Wall Street Journal revealed that a YouTube video - “Al Gore’s Penguin Army” - which was claimed to be an amateur work in fact came from the computers of DCI Group, a Washington, D.C.-based PR firm whose acknowledged leaders all have ties to the Republican Party and whose client list includes ExxonMobil and General Motors. (See Al Gore’s Penguin Army video controversy.) This hoax was discovered when journalist, Antonio Ragalado, noticed that the YouTube video was the first sponsored listing when he performed a Google search for Al Gore. The fact that someone was actually paying to have the alleged amateur film promoted was in itself suspicious.
* Since the spring of 2006, American Airlines has received frequent accusations of astroturfing due to its acknowledged support (including some financial backing) of Stop and Think, a Dallas-based organization that has advocated the retention of the federal Wright Amendment ban on most long haul commercial passenger airline service at Dallas Love Field. Many opponents of the Wright Amendment believe that American, the dominant passenger airline at nearby Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, has an overly cozy relationship with the management of DFW Airport and/or uses overly aggressive competitive tactics against other airlines that serve DFW, and that for airline competition in North Texas to increase substantively, the federal government must repeal the Wright Amendment and let Love Field be an alternative to DFW for airlines flying long haul routes to and from North Texas. Therefore, these critics think that the Wright Amendment unduly limits the competition that American faces in the North Texas commercial aviation market and that American is using Stop and Think to try to manipulate the public into backing the law — and, by extension, the airline’s commercial interests — under a pretense of broad-based community support.
* In July 2006, an article by Vladimir Socor, a veteran analyst of east European affairs for the Jamestown Foundation, claimed that a report on Transdniestria issued by the International Council for Democratic Institutions and State Sovereignty, “State Sovereignty of Pridnestrovie (PMR) under international law”, was a Russian-sponsored attempt at disinformation. A spokesperson for the organization, Megan Stephenson, has denied these charges. Shortly afterwards The Economist published two articles highlighting the ICDISS’s lack of a physical presence and its disinclination to provide independent verification of its activities and previous existence. The Economist also reported that prominent academics cited as sources in the ICDISS report on Transdniestria disclaimed any connection with the organization. The Economist noted the Wikipedia entry for ICDISS created as part of the apparent disinformation exercise.
* In December 2006, the “All I want for Xmas is a PSP” marketing campaign by Zipatoni and Sony sparked outrage from the gaming community when it was discovered that the fake blog was in fact assembled by a marketing team. (See PlayStation Portable#Controversial advertising campaigns)
* In January 2007, the Chicago Tribune reported that Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) was behind Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity (CORE), an organization that had been running television ads in Illinois against a proposed statewide freeze in electricity rates. The television ads did include any reference to ComEd, despite the fact that ComEd has provided $10 million dollars of funding for CORE, whose advisory board is peppered with members tied to ComEd.
Telecom astroturf
Dionne Searcey, in the article “Consumer Groups Tied to Industry”, in the Wall Street Journal, Tuesday March 28, 2006, p. B4, names some telecom groups as astroturf:
* Consumers for Cable Choice. Funding from Verizon Communications, Inc. and AT&T, Inc.
* Keep It Local New Jersey. Funding from New Jersey Telecommunications Associates; the WSJ indicates this is a coalition of various telecoms including Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems Corp.
* New Millennium Research Council. Funding from Verizon Communications Inc.
Other known telecom astroturfing groups:
* Video Access Alliance. Created by Netcommunication for an unknown client
* Hands Off the Internet, (http://handsoff.org/). Reported by Kos in Daily Kos
* Advanced Technology Alliance, funded by AT&T.
Fictional examples
Government astroturfing, as well as other sneaky tricks including an eleven-day war waged to distract from a sex scandal, are depicted in the film Wag the Dog.
The satirical newspaper The Onion had an opinion piece entitled “I’d Love This Product Even If I Weren’t A Stealth Marketer,” which is written by a young employee of Pepsi-Cola, who is paid to astroturf.
In the Christopher Buckley novel, Thank You For Smoking, Nick Naylor mentions several astroturf groups, including a “Smokers’ Rights” group made up of Hispanic smokers which was called “Fumamos.”
See also
* Harry and Louise
* False flag
* Spin (public relations)
* Sock puppeting – a form of personal astroturfing common in Internet communities
* Working Families for Wal-Mart
* Viral marketing
Via Wikipedia
