Gina Thurston
gt213919@ohio.edu
Astroturfing, say again?
We all know astroturf is fake green grass, usually used for sports fields or in areas where grass doesn't grow or stay green naturally. It's the appearance of real grass. Understand? Okay, good.
With that in mind, let's take the term grassroots, which is a movement from the ground up, meaning it starts with concerned citizens...or just citizens, us ground-level folks. When I was younger, I was a fan of a very talented local band. We hung posters and spread the word of this band from Vancouver, BC to LA, eventually they were signed and became somewhat famous in the early oughts. I was part of a grassroots fan club.
So- the term Astroturfing means a FAKE grassroots movement. Now, that doesn't sound like any fun at all. Who would create such a group, and why?
The Who is INDUSTRY. Industries that are doing things or producing things that are harmful to people and the planet. Industries that don't want to lose profits or change the way they operate, are usually behind astroturfing.
(A list of companies known for their astroturfing deceptions can be found here, it's not surprising...)
The Why is to create doubt, like in science, where there are never absolutes. Or to create the impression of being a spontaneous grassroots behavior and to disguise the agenda as an independent public reaction to some political, product, service or event.
There are many ways a company can use astroturfing to deceive or mislead the public by pretending to be a concerned member of said public.
- Fake positive reviews on that company's products
- Fake negative reviews on competitor's products
- Creating fake personas aka "sockpuppets" on social media and popular message board sites which spread similar posts to create the illusion of a populist idea.
- Pay-for-play deals with influencers and bloggers to promote your product in exchange for gifts.
- Paying people to show up at rallies and protests
We can't talk about Astroturfing without talking about its dirty first cousin, the Front Group:
Something that industry lobbyists tend to do is hide who they are when they are trying to manufacture doubt about science or a particular cause.
A good example of a front group that acted like they represented concerned citizens, but they actually represented corporate interests was the Global Climate Coalition. This organization looks like a group collaborating between scientists and concerned citizens. So when they argue that climate change doesn't exist/we can't do anything about it/science is too uncertain...it seems to represent a legitimate group's concerns.
However, if you look closely at who is funding the Global Climate Coalition, there is not a single concerned citizen in the mix. It's all the energy industry giants who want to appear like they are neutral and objective, but they are just pushing their agenda in an extremely deceptive way.
Another example: Pretend McDonald's came out with a mass media marketing ad that stated the Big Mac was nutritious and good for us. Most of us would be skeptical because we know fast food is probably the least nutritious food of all, plus McD's has a huge incentive to lie about something like this. So, McDonald's, being this billion-dollar company, knows better than to even bother.
Now pretend there was an organization called "American Health Coalition" staffed with 300 "expert nutritionists" that came out with the statement that Big Macs are nutritious. That changes everything, doesn't it? Well, the coalition is owned by McDonalds and all the other fast-food franchise billionaires, and they pay the experts $$$ to make these false statements.
"Uproot" the fake grassroots....
With doubt being the product, people need to learn how to identify phony grassroots organizations and their campaigns. Websites such as SourceWatch and DeSmoggBlog thoroughly research groups involved in these campaigns and do their best to inform the public when the industry is trying to dupe us into thinking their harmful tactics are in our best interest.
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