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Glite Dictionary
🏟️ Artificial grass 🎭 Fake support 🌱 To add fake grass
AstroTurf

AstroTurf

3 9.1
A campaign that looks like public support but is paid for by outside groups
  • noun
  • /ˈæstroʊˌtɜrf/
  • Literature
translation icon : AstroTurf
  • The political campaign was criticized for being an AstroTurf effort rather than genuine grassroots support.
  • AstroTurf groups

You don't get much more phony than an Astroturf town green.

Examples

  • No doubt it started out as astroturf, then turned into a real grassroots movement.

    Blog text (7)

  • One year ago, Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) waged an astroturf campaign to defeat the hotly contested fracking ban ordinance in Peters Township, PA.

    Blog text (28)

  • There is a reason such efforts are called Astroturf.

    Blog text (7)

  • "Mansfielders for Jobs," front group, leads astroturf charge.

    Blog text (28)

  • Cato is an astroturf organization: there is no significant participation by the tiny libertarian minority.

    Blog text (34)

  • Many social media movements turn out to be AstroTurf campaigns funded by large corporations.

  • The environmental group exposed the AstroTurf tactics used by organizations pretending to advocate for local issues.

Synonyms

online propaganda campaign
vsAstroTurf
  • Texting
5.6

A planned online effort to spread ideas or false information to change people's opinions

is organized to look like local spontaneous support rather than an open online push
propagandism
vsAstroTurf
9.0

A practice of spreading biased information to make people accept certain ideas

is a covert campaign pretending to be spontaneous community backing rather than general persuasion

Antonyms

grassroots
51 4.4

Involving ordinary people who support a movement or campaign

How Genuine

grassroots
51 4.4
supported
2.0
AstroTurf
  • Literature
3 9.1

Surface Forms

AstroTurf singular
AstroTurfs plural

Morphology

AstroTurf = turf (semi-transparent) = astro + turf

The political sense is a metaphorical extension of artificial turf: support is manufactured to look like it comes naturally from the grassroots.

Etymology

AstroTurf was a brand of fake 'grass', so people started using AstroTurf to name a fake 'grassroots' movement that is actually organized or paid for by outside groups. That's why AstroTurf now means a campaign that looks like real public support but is not.