Astroturf Group vs. Ontario Teachers?

[dewline]

Making a note of this.

https://pressprogress.ca/mysterious-group-uses-made-up-name-and-fake-mom-to-attack-teachers-in-canadas-biggest-newspapers/

Comments

[cmcmck]

Nods sagely (I'm a retired teacher).

[dewline]

This has to be hurting on several levels.

[moon_custafer]

Is it weird that I find the fact that the ad was placed by an unregistered organization with an astroturf name a lot more mendacious than the use of Shutterstock? I’m so used to stock professional actors or models in PSAs, ads for commercial products, etc., that I tend to just assume the “voters” in political ads were purchased from Getty Images or Eyewire unless the candidate is also in the picture with them. Then again, legit grassroots organizations and local candidates tend to be working with small enough budgets that I wouldn't blame them for going to Shutterstock. If this ad space cost so much, you'd think the group behind it could have sprung for some actors and graphic designers and made them sign a NDA.

[dewline]

Nope.

Not weird at all that you see things in that light. Because I suspect that you're right.

[moon_custafer]

Ethics aside, this just seems like a really sloppy astroturf job. I can see them not registering the supposed organization, because that likely requires a background check, but they couldn’t put up a website? It’s like they put all the money into buying the ad space and then left the rest of the job to an intern.

[moon_custafer]

Now wondering if “lots of $+print media+no internet awareness” means the ad-placer/s is/are fairly old, or if that’s just the demographic it’s aimed at. Then again, if they didn’t anticipate any journalists looking for an organization website, or doing a reverse image search, probably the former is true (or both).

[sabotabby]

I am very proud to have been the person who caught the Shutterstock photo and linked back to the source.

[dewline]

Well done, then.