Wikipedia defines astroturfing as:

formal public relations (PR) campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the “AstroTurf” (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate “fake grassroots,” or sometimes “fake environmentalism.”

And, I know you will be shocked to learn -as I was, this practice is surprisingly commonplace. Walmart, the largest retailer in the US, has recently been outed for this sort of dodgy campaign.

They cunningly sent up a blog purporting to be the record of a couple of ‘ordinary Americans’ travelling in a motor home across the US, stopping in Walmart parking lots. Yeah, killer material.

Now, I am not sure what tipped people off to the fact that this was a stunt (other than the content of the blog), but what is really interesting is that the genius behind this “cutting-edge” marketing ploy (at least I imagine that is how it was sold to the Walmart execs) is a long time PR guru who has his own blog.

Does this strike you as odd? Here is a guy who blogs himself, but was insufficiently savvy to realize that this venture was, to use the technical term, a really stupid idea. Of course the ruse would be seen through. Of course it would be traced back to the PR firm. It’s Walmart, people! They are not exactly a low-profile, under-the-radar sort of organisation, are they?

This is a textbook example of applying old models of thinking about public afffairs and communications to new media. And guess what? They just don’t work. A blog, as the PR guru should know, is a specific sort of channel that is defined, in part, by the wider community of bloggers, the ‘blogosphere.’ It is not a simple case of signing on to WordPress and spruiking your wares. There are conventions to observe, like, for example:

• be honest
• allow comments, so it is a discussion
• don’t fill it with the corporate orthodoxy
• engage people

Now PR guru-guy has been blogging since September 2004, which pretty much puts him up-there in the early adopter stakes, but the fact that he still cooked up, or approved, this lame campaign suggests that he hasn’t really grasped the fundamentals of the new media.

And there is a lesson here for all of us: yes, blogs are cool; they are a channel that we all should be aware of and understand, just don’t go rushing out and launching a blog for your agency without giving it a great deal of considered thought. In fact, the question you should really be asking is: why should (insert agency name here) be blogging? Not: why not?

UPDATE

Russell Brown links to this story about Roche’s astroturfing over Herceptin. It sort of makes PR guru-guy above look like a dilettante…