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Description
| Manufacturing Grassroots Support |
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Front groups are not the only way in which corporate interests can be portrayed as coinciding with a greater public interest. Public relations firms are becoming proficient at helping their corporate clients convince key politicians that there is wide public support for their environmentally damaging activities or their demands for looser environmental regulations. Using specially tailored mailing lists, field officers, telephone banks and the latest in information technology, these firms are able to generate hundreds of telephone calls and/or thousands of pieces of mail to key politicians, creating the impression that there is wide public support for their client's position. This sort of operation was almost unheard of ten years ago, yet in the US today where "technology makes building volunteer organizations as simple as writing a check", it has become "one of the hottest trends in politics" and an $800 million industry. It is now a part of normal business for corporations and trade associations to employ one of the dozens of companies that specialise in these strategies, to run grassroots campaigns for them. (Faucheux 1995) Firms and associations utilising such services include
When a group of US electric utility companies wanted to influence the Endangered Species Act which was being reauthorised to ensure that economic factors were considered when species were listed as endangered, their lawyers advised them to form a broad-based coalition with a grassroots orientation: "Incorporate as a non-profit, develop easy-to-read information packets for Congress and the news media and woo members from virtually all walks of life. Members should include Native American entities, county and local governments, universities, school boards...." As a result of this advice the National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition was formed, one of a "growing roster of industry groups that have discovered grass-roots lobbying as a way to influence environmental debates." (Carney 1992) Artificially created grass roots coalitions are referred to in the industry as 'astroturf' (after a synthetic grass product). Astroturf is a "grassroots program that involves the instant manufacturing of public support for a point of view in which either uninformed activists are recruited or means of deception are used to recruit them." (quoted Stauber & Rampton 1995/6, p. 23) According to Consumer Reports magazine, those engaging in this sort of work can earn up to $500 "for every citizen they mobilize for a corporate client's cause." (Anon 1994) Additional Material. Anderson, Walter T., 'Astroturf - The Big Business of Fake Grassroots Politics', Jinn, 1 May, 1996. Anon., 1994, 'Public Interest Pretenders', Consumer Reports, Vol. 59, No. 5, p. 319 Astroturf: The Best Friends Money Can Buy Campaigns and Elections, Grassroots Lobbying Buyers Guide. Carney, Eliza Newlin, 1992, 'Industry plays the grass-roots card', National Journal, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 281-3. Faucheux, Ron, 1995, 'The Grassroots Explosion', Campaigns & Elections, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 20-30, 53-8. Hammond, Keith, 'Astroturf Troopers' , Mother Jones, 4 December, 1997. Holmes, Paul, 1998, Who's Poisoning the Grassroots?, Reputation Management, July/August. Lawrence, Jay, 'Is it Real or is it Astroturf? 12 principles for effective grass-roots communication', FH Zine. Maclachlan, Malcolm, 1998, 'Microsoft Not Alone in Planting Grassroots', TechWeb 21 April. Silverstein, Ken, 1996, APCO: Astroturf Makers, Multinational Monitor, 17(3), March. Stauber, John and Sheldon Rampton, 1996, 'The public relations industry's secret war on activists', CovertAction Quarterly, No 55, (Winter). US Political Glossary- definitions of astroturf and grassroots
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© 2003 Sharon Beder