Category:Astroturf seeding

Main article: Astroturf seeding

When big companies or political interests disseminate public relations or propaganda material under the guise of it being informational, especially to a captive, receptive, and impressionable audience such as schoolchildren, then the criteria for Astroturf have been met, and yet another thing entirely is going on.

First, the similarities; the source and quality of the action or information, and the outcome. Astroturf is also deception by big financial or political entities, and the deception about the source can be added to by the information actually being bad or biased, also. The deception ends up being a convincing impression that small groups of highly motivated people have been roused to take democratic action by releasing information.

The difference is that Astroturf uses false front organizations to disseminate corporate/political information in the guise of Grassroots organizations. (Real Astroturf is fake plastic grass mats, so fake grassroots = Astroturf)