Wednesday, December 27, 2006





I just wanted to throw up a quick post announcing my membership in the anti-astroturfing campaign. I'm proud to be a part of any public relations movement that encourages collaboration and transparency over concealment and stealth.

I’ve touched on astroturfing in earlier posts, but head over to the New PR Wiki for a rundown on all things Anti-astroturfing.

Some of the most interesting elements are found in the case studies section:

How Labour used its election troops to fake popular support - Gaby Hinsliff - The Guardian Story about Tony Blair's campaign team using astroturfing tactics.

Sick lobbying is behind penguin spoof of Al Gore - Chris Ayres - August 5, 2006 - The Times online reports on the Al Gore YouTube? video and other cases of astroturfing

I find that too many public relations professionals who are new to the blogosphere instinctively seek to undermine the process by artificially inserting his/her client’s message into the conversation. This campaign was created in an effort to combat that sentiment. Every instance of astroturfing shuts the Web 2.0 door just a little further on our profession.

I had the privilege of meeting up with Paull Young while he was on tour in Washington D.C. He really spearheaded this campaign and we talked about the benefits of clients and agencies coming on board with this. I was glad to get his insights on this and happy to be a part of it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Astroturfing is really a problem, the worst example I've seen is "Hands off the Internet", claiming to be grassroots they are actually funded by major telecom companies who are attempting to hijack the internet through the use of favored packets, thus insuring that companies that pay up have their websites load faster while others are intentionally lagged.