Astroturfing in the marketing world refers to any political, advertising, or public relations campaigns that intentionally creates the false impression of being spontaneous or "grassroots" in nature, hence the reference to the artificial grass, Astro Turf.

The purpose of this type of campaign is to disguise the agenda of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to a political entity, politician, political group, product, service or event. Various ways that astroturfing occurs includes posting positive reviews of a company or product and the posts are written by the company using a false name to conceal the connection between the post writer and the company or companies distributing negative information about a competitor disguised as information from an independent source in order to create grassroots movement against the competitor.

Astroturfers attempt to manipulate the actions of what appears to be diverse and geographically distributed group of individuals using a combination of traditional marketing tools with a false or hidden message. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations. Often political consultants specializing in opposition research will use astroturfing methods but by no means is it relegated to this segment of marketers.

The term was first used by Sen .Lloyd Bentsen in reaction to a barrage of letters sent to his office in 1985 promoting insurance industry interests.

Astroturfing is widely considered unethical and if exposed by media, can cause a backlash for the product, company or idea it was meant to promote.