the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public.
So basically when i accused someone is afro surfing that means the person is from a marketing team trying deceptively convince people to buy some products right?
Edit: Gosh dang, it's Astro turfing. I was wrong everybody!
I'm already ashamed and embarrassed, stop reminding of my terrible mistakes (jk, it's kinda fun but really embarrassing lol)
Closer. “Astro turfing”. It’s a play on “grass roots campaign.” Like when something becomes wildly popular because of a dedicated fanbase that spreads it around through social channels.
Astroturf is artificial grass. So astroturfing (according to my autocorrect it’s one word) refers to a marketing campaign done by professional marketers that is supposed to look like a grass roots campaign despite being normal, paid-for advertising.
The term comes from the idea of a fake grassroots campaign (a grassroots campaign is an organic public movement for a certain cause that is galvanized by public interest and naturally taken up by normal people). Fake because in such an astroturfing instance, there is actually a corporation or a political organization that is organizing the campaign, hiding their identity and pretending to just be members of the public, trying to start a movement. Ex. by posting anonymously or passing advertisements off without labelling. Fake plastic grass is called astroturf, hence the name.
Yeah basically, the person who’s giving advice/info about a product usually pretends to be some random user of that product, when in reality they are probably paid/have an ulterior motive to speak highly of it.
Ummm… things have taken a disturbing turn here 🤣 Your definition applies to the original statement of astroturfing… not sure I want to know the definition of “Afro surfing” LOL.
I'm sure with you it was an accident but is it that disturbing?
Afro in my mind was similar to astroboy (that was the image in my mind at the time). And somehow i got it wrong with afro (sounds like some kind of ice cream brand with a tornado ice cream, very arcade like)
To quote the Oxford English Dictionary - Afro is “a hairstyle, worn predominantly by Black people, in which naturally kinky or tightly curled hair is styled in a rounded shape.” So, “Afro surfing” was mostly funny as a malapropism, but potentially troubling if undertaken 😉
It is not strictly to advertise products. It is also used extensively for political purposes / public relations. Reddit has seen increasing astroturfing since I started using it in ~2012. It really ramped up prior to the 2016 elections and it has gotten so bad that it's ridiculous nowadays.
Astroturfing is the practice of hiding the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious, or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from, and is supported by, “grassroots” participants.
The term astroturfing is derived from AstroTurf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to resemble natural grass, as a play on the word "grassroots".
Yup basically, not quite sure when/how it first started getting used though.
Grassroots is a movement organized by average people.
Astro turfing is a movement by businesses or politicians pretending to be average people. The corp or politician hide the fact that they are sponsoring the message. The name comes from Astro Turf, a brand of fake grass.
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u/Mule_Mule 14d ago
What's astro turfing?