astroturfing means the disguising of an orchestrated campaign as a "grass-roots" event, i.e., a spontaneous upwelling of public opinion. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.
Why “astroturfing” is a great word
ASTROTURFING — [Noun] The deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or political campaign as a spontaneous, grassroots movement. From the proprietary name AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic grass, as a pun on 'grass roots', meaning 'fake grass roots'; widely attributed to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen in a 1985 public statement. Unlike "grassroots" (which denotes genuine, organic uprising) or "lobbying" (which is open, declared advocacy), astroturfing is a ventriloquist's act, a sponsored whisper made to sound like a public roar. It is the coordinated flood of identical comments beneath a regulatory docket, the sudden swell of "local" outrage from freshly-minted social media accounts, and the earnest-looking petition whose signatories are all paid actors—a pantomime of democracy where the audience is also part of the cast.
noun
- The disguising of an orchestrated campaign as a "grass-roots" event, i.e., a spontaneous upwelling of public opinion.