Health-washing is a particularly iniquitous activity in which companies use dietitians to give a veneer of respectability to their products by suggesting their health benefits. An offshoot is what is known as astroturfing, which is just as sinister in intent. In an allusion to fake grass (AstroTurf), astroturfing has a specifically political connotation. In a Content Technologies study guide, Doris A. Graber defines it in terms of political campaigns: ‘The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political
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