‘Astroturfing’ denotes political, advertising or public relations campaigns that are formally planned by an organisation, but are disguised as spontaneous, popular ‘grassroots’ behaviour. The term refers to Astroturf, a brand of synthetic carpeting designed to look like natural grass.
Astroturfing NZ was created by a small group of concerned citizens to shine a light on astroturfing efforts aimed at Aotearoa New Zealand. These campaigns are running all around us to shape our view of the world, our politics, and change our behaviours.
Who is doing this? Some campaigns are driven by individual corporations looking to influence government policy or public perception, while others are driven by the fossil fuel and tobacco industries to slow down or stop regulation that may be detrimental to their businesses.
Many of the astroturf efforts are well resourced and internationally organised, so you will often see similar looking campaigns running in multiple countries.
Astroturfing NZ is primarily a source of published media stories relating to astroturfing in Aotearoa New Zealand, but over time we will add deeper analysis where we see gaps in local media coverage.