Astroturfing refers to marketing / public relations campaigns which attempt to create the impression of being spontaneous and true, genuine (and representations of *real* people and their opinions) when, in fact, they are not. In all of the standards of practice listed below, this practice is considered to be unethical.

Astroturfing is an interesting topic. I see PR practitioners that defend it as a valuable tool. Others decry it as unethical and bad practice. I’ll place myself in the latter group.

FlackLife blogger, Bob LeDrew, has the story in two posts so far. They are “Now we flacks get students to astroturf for us” and an interview with Hunter College faculty member and “PR expert Stuart Ewen on (the) ‘Heidi Cee’” astroturf blogging, social networks and YouTube video fiasco.

This example from Hunter College and Coach goes beyond simple astroturfing, though. This involves the following (Sources: here and here):

• a university president involving herself in the setting of curriculum
• a department chair conceding to the wishes of the president and creating a course solely for the creation of the astroturf campaign
• an instructor arguing that the course was unethical, yet felt pressure due to lack of tenure and taught it anyway
• the instructor had no prior background in public relations or marketing
• a college forcing this deceptive practice (and involvement in it) upon students in a class
• a corporate donor to Hunter College (CUNY) asking for the course and the Hunter president forcing the course and astroturfing on the department
• “the Coach Corporation, manufacturer of shoes, handbags, and accessories, put up ten thousand dollars to fund the course“
• Update: RDWaters reminds me that “Ohio State University, Howard University, and University of Miami are among the schools that have hosted IACC campaigns similar to Hunter’s.” (Source: Ben Kessler blog and IACC College Outreach Program)
  • Campaign results reports for other schools:
  • City College Of New York Campaign Summary
  • Howard University Campaign Summary
  • Hunter College Campaign Summary
  • Ohio State University Campaign Summary
  • University of Miami Campaign Summary
• believe me, these are only the highlights lowlights … there is much, much more …

I simply cannot imagine a more definitive example of bad practice than this case. The interference by the president, the campaign tied to a donation to the college, the creation of a course solely to accomplish the deceit, the students (it seems) happily joining in, the faculty and department chair encouraging them along … it just boggles the mind. How stupid can these people be?

Read the links, watch the video. Fake vs. Fakes | Center for Media and Democracy. What do you think of all this? I’ve already seen two PR practitioners in a listserv group defend the practice. Oh, brother.

• FlackLife: UPDATED: Now we flacks get students to astroturf for us.
• Ben Kessler: Heidi Cee in Plain Sight at Graphic Design Forum Blogs
• IACC
• Fake vs. Fakes | Center for Media and Democracy
• Hunter_Report.pdf (application/pdf Object) – this is likely the most disturbing of all

Update: Ya’ gotta read this great post by Clemson’s Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu. In particular, see the class blog she came across for the course. Yikes!

If you are interested, here is what I wrote in reply to the listserv group where the practice of astroturfing was being defended by a few PR practitioners.

The space known as social media is not the same as advertising.

The space has been claimed, for lack of a better term, by those that inhabit the space. The audience sets the rules and associations representing practitioners have recognized that reality by creating standards of practice guidelines.

In the Coach example, their target audience is young people. This further illustrates the irony and foolishness of the Coach astroturfing campaign. Younger audiences have an increasing disdain for advertising. Advertising, to younger audiences, is increasingly being perceived as fake and insincere.

Forget, for a moment, the social media kookaid drinkers and their “people formerly known as the audience” mentality. At its very core, the Coach example is bad practice.

Practitioners have seen fit to create guidelines that recognize these perceived lines in the sand created by the audiences inhabiting the space of social media.

The standard of good practice within the social media space says that it is the responsibility of communicators to (a) understand the space they are communicating in and (b) to be as completely transparent as they can be. This is why associations representing practitioners have seen fit to create standards of practice that call for that transparency.

Examples of those standards:

http://www.cipr.co.uk/socialmedia/ – Chartered Institute of Public Relations
http://www.womma.org/ethics/ – Word of Mouth Marketing Association — WOMMA

PRSA, IABC and IOAC have also established standards of practice.

In each, transparency is the common theme. The rules for advertising do not apply to social media. They are not the same thing. I realize that this concept is novel to many, but it is the reality in the social media space.

There is certainly “a disconnect in using an elaborately created fake person(s) to say that fake stuff is bad.”

Since I have blatantly ripped off his announcement of the SNCR newsletter – and the pending conference, you really should attend, why not visit his blog, please.

There is much more at PR Communications. I discovered a wealth of insights when visiting his blog. John shares the news that Boston is apparently home to the dumbest marketing efforts on planet earth.

I’m betting these marketing events are being planned by out-of-towners, by the way. They are likely some idiots hired by Dr. Pepper to do events around the country. But, isn’t it strange that Boston has been the unwilling, unwitting host of these two recent marketing fiascos – Dr. Pepper’s treasure hunt and Turner’s Cartoon Network?

Go read it and I will wait.

Back now? Good. I’ll only offer these observations. Having been involved in planning a few thousand events, I can safely recite a few principles to remember when creating said events.

• Think first. Do you really want to bury gold coins in a national cemetary, particularly when it is home to people like Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere? The imagery of having your product associated with digging up sacred ground isn’t a plus.
• If you plan an event in a city, you are responsible for – in advance of the event – acquiring all required permissions, permits and setting up security for that event. You should notify the authorities if you think it might cause a problem.

Now, Dr. Pepper’s marketing team is responsible for having “Boston City Council President Maureen E. Feeney (announce she) will be holding hearings on the issue of guerilla marketing.” Way to go, folks. Many more of these and “guerilla and standard marketing” will become synonymous with “stupid marketing.” I’m sure all the sane marketers in Boston would love to have a little alone time with you. Perhaps descendants of Bernie, Georgie, and Edward “Punchy” McLaughlin, from Charleston, could pay you a visit.

John Cass, who is in Boston, is actually the one marketer exhibiting wisdom and intelligence by seeking to do damage control for the discipline of marketing.

As a board member with the Boston American Marketing Association I’d like to invite City Council President Maureen E. Feeney to the Boston Marketing Club next week, an event held by the Boston Chapter of the American Marketing Association. As the community discussion topic is guerilla marketing, I think it would be healthy for the council to get local Boston marketer’s views on the issue and perhaps some ideas about how such issues might be handled in the future.

No word as to the rumor that a Dr. Pepper official will be sacrificed – drawn and quartered – as the program after lunch.

So, kudos to John Cass. Your fellow Boston AMA marketers should name you President. Oh, wait. They already have. OK, they should give you an award, too.

Honestly, I’m such a cynic, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dr. Pepper and Turner marketing firms actually planned these media events to cause a stir. I know. Too over the top. But, that shows how little I trust most of these guerilla marketing efforts.

Now, John’s excellent recap of SNCR news. Great stuff. Please go read all the links.

The February issue of the New Communications Review was published today. It features Katie Paine’s social media wish list for 2007, Susen Getgood’s thoughts on the Boston bomb scare cause by the viral marketing campaign, and Phil Gomes discusses the recent conversation around the social media press release.

Lastly a reminder the society for new communications annual conference New Communications Forum 2007 is only two weeks away. Join more than 400 marketers, communications professional and media people in Las Vegas for the NewComm Forum. Visit the conference website to register and use promo code 612SHN to save $200.