Peace, order and good government, eh?: One man’s marketing is another man’s astroturf

Ontario marketing campaign seeded Internet with 'conversations' promoting coal, nuclear A bold labour union offensive targeting the environmental policies of the Ontario government is being driven largely by a sophisticated marketing campaign that has planted comments to "create online conversations" promoting coal, nuclear and other power options. What the article calls bold, I would call deceptive. Whether or not the union's positions on energy can be defended, its method of promoting them is fraudulent. When they "plant" comments or create blogs that don't list the affiliation or the funding source, they're attempting to simulate a grass roots movement that doesn't exist. It's normally known as astroturf and this is just the version of it that has involved to take advantage of social media. I sincerely hope that other unions aren't employing these methods. And I have a message for M THIRTY, the "communications firm" that actually implemented this campaign: if I identify anyone participating in the conversation on any site where I have control as being an employee of your company and/or a participant in one of your campaigns, I'll block the IP address immediately and without appeal. Go astroturf somebody else. More at BigCityLib Strikes Back. Cross-posted at onpoli.ca…

Continue reading