4 ms·
Can someone explain this expression to me? "astroturfed to within an inch of its life"
by jms703 4y ago
Can someone explain this expression to me? "astroturfed to within an inch of its life"
- kens 4y agoThe expression "astroturfed to within an inch of its life" means that most of the reviews are fake recommendations for marketing reasons. Specifically, it's a mixed metaphor, which makes it harder to understand. "Astroturfed" describes a marketing campaign that is disguised as genuine opinions, in the way that AstroTurf is an artificial lawn that is supposed to look real. "Within an inch of his life" is an old expression typically used to describe a thrashing or beating and means "almost to the point of death", but is used metaphorically here to mean "extremely".
- stinkytaco 4y agoFor readers not at all familiar with American idioms, "astroturfed" is a response to "grassroots". A "grassroots" movement in American slang is one that is bottom up and not driven by advertising, corporations or political parties. Astroturfing gives the appearance of being grassroots when it is not.
- kevinmgranger 4y agoLived all my life in America and never made that connection. Whaddya know!
- kens 4y agoI should have known that :-) I was curious, so I looked into this a bit more. Monsanto advertised Astroturf in 1971 with the slogan "The new grass-roots movement. It's away from grass, to Astroturf." In the 1980s, grass-roots vs Astroturf started to be used as a political metaphor by people such as Bob Dole and Lloyd Bentsen, and then became a popular media expression in the 1990s. So ironically, the metaphorical use of "astroturf" was originally driven by advertising.
- sonofhans 4y agoHoly shit, that’s a good explanation.
- mrtesthah 4y agoHow do you know the individuals offering their ostensible personal experience of a particular product aren’t being paid to disingenuously market said product on social media?
- charlie0 4y agoAka native advertising.