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astroturfing

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Astroturfing is faking grassroots support for a product or view. Accused of astroturfing, an astroturfing campaign, obvious astroturfing.

The name is a joke on grassroots, since astroturf is fake grass, and it was coined by an American senator describing a mailbag of manufactured letters. It is now done at scale with accounts rather than paper.

Definitions of astroturfing

  1. 1nounastroturfingFaking grassroots support for a product or view.C2

    “The company was accused of astroturfing after hundreds of fake reviews praised its product.”

astroturfing is a deception.

Where it comes from

A play on grassroots, from the brand name of an artificial grass, attributed to Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

Built from

  • AstroTurf · English — a synthetic substitute for grass

From AstroTurf (“a synthetic substitute for grass”), a play on grass roots, as in “fake grass roots”. Attributed to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen in an unidentified 1985 public statement: "[A] fellow from Texas can tell the difference between grassroots and Astroturf."

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Marketing & Advertising

Practise this word

astroturfing in the wild

  • Some groups accused of astroturfing argue that they are legitimately helping citizen activists to make their voices heard.

    Astroturfing

  • EPA's Policy and Scientific Committee director, Paolo Balboni, has denied the astroturfing allegation in a letter to the editor of the Financial Times.

    European Privacy Association

  • The developers were also accused of astroturfing online reviews on Metacritic.

    Day One: Garry's Incident

  • In that year's state senate primary elections, small political consulting firm Moxie Media engaged in astroturfing that resulted in a surprise loss for incumbent Jean Berkey.

    Moxie Media scandal

  • Wikiturfing is a portmanteau of astroturfing and Wikipedia, also called wikiwashing as a portmanteau of Wikipedia and whitewashing.

    Wikiturfing

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.