What is astroturfing? Secret PR tactics in Blake Lively’s lawsuit

Blake Lively has accused Justin Baldoni of using astroturfing against her

Yes, Blake Lively officially filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios. She claims he sexually harassed her and then Justin Baldoni launched a negative PR campaign against her in retaliation. Justin Bladoni denies all the allegations. Blake Lively’s official document consistently accuses Justin Baldoni of a secret PR strategy called “astroturfing.” So what is astroturfing? How does Blake Lively feel that Justin Baldoni used this technique against her? We are here to explain everything for you.

What exactly is astroturfing?

The complaint’s legal document says that strategies which Justin Baldoni’s Crisis PR Manager Melissa Nathan proposed, “went far beyond standard crisis PR” and “involved a practice known as Astroturfing”, which was defined as “the practice of publishing opinions or comments online, in the media, etc., that appear to come from ordinary members of the public , but actually come from a certain company or political group.” By the way, this definition is taken from the Cambridge dictionary.

The word “astroturfing” comes from the artificial grass surface of astroturf. Because it looks like a fake grassroots campaign. Got it?

Blake Lively’s argument is that Justin Baldoni’s PR team used astroturfing to destroy public opinion of her in retaliation for her complaints that he sexually harassed her. Her lawyers believe that the slew of negative stories and social media posts about Blake Lively that we all saw over the summer actually came secretly from Justin Baldoni’s PR team.

Blake Lively’s legal complaint specifically accuses Justin Baldoni of using astroturfing against her

Like, several times. The complaint states: “The millions of people (including many reporters and influencers) who saw these planted stories, social media posts and other online content had no idea they were unwitting consumers of crisis PR, astroturfing and a digital vendetta campaign. created and funded by Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer to harm Ms. Lively.

“That’s exactly the purpose of an astroturfing campaign – to light a fire and continue to secretly fuel conversations, blurring the lines between authentic and fictional content and creating viral public takedowns.”

The footnote adds: “Ms. Lively is informed and believes that Mr. Baldoni and his colleagues have additional plans for astroturfing that they have prepared and are ready to launch at a moment’s notice.”

What negative stories do people think Justin Baldoni created about Blake Lively?

The complaint document contains many examples. Blake Lively’s team received all of these messages via subpoena. The message is in all the documents published by The New York Times.

So, on August 5, Justin Baldoni’s publicist, Jennifer Abel, sent him a screenshot of the X thread titled “The Story of Hailey Bieber Bullying Many Women Over the Years, Not Just Selena Gomez.” Jennifer Abel wrote: “This is what we’re going to need.” Justin replied: “Literally just talked to Melissa about this during the break about what we discussed last night about social and digital. Focus on Reddit, TikTok, IG.”

Blake Lively’s lawyers suggest that Justin Baldoni and his team may have used astroturfing to create similar social media threads about Blake Lively. The document does not indicate that the PR team created any theories about Hailey Bieber.

Jennifer Abel told about this in a large post on Facebook she did plan for “negative press” and “social backlash” against Blake Lively, but her team never had to do it themselves. She claims social media still turned against Blake Lively without Team Jennifer.

Melissa Nathan’s sister, Sarah Nathan, is a journalist for Page Six and the New York Post. On August 13, she wrote an article entitled “Blake Lively approves ‘It All Ends With Us’ final cut amid feud with co-director Justin Baldoni“. Blake Lively’s lawyers say the phrases in the article are very similar to the texts between Melissa and Nathan. They believe that Melissa could have advised Sara to write something in the article that would make Justin Baldoni look better and Blake Lively look worse.

On August 16, Melissa Nathan sent members of Justin Baldoni’s PR team a Daily Mail article titled “A series of ‘hard to watch’ videos that have emerged following a ‘deaf’ Q&A to promote It Ends With Us could forever tarnish the 36-year-old star’s golden Hollywood image“. Publicist Jennifer Abel responded: “Wow. You really outdid yourself with this piece.” Melissa Nathan responded, “That’s why you hired me, right? I’m the best.”

Blake Lively believes that Justin Baldoni’s astroturfing has influenced her entire business

The document states: “Around the same time, the social media accounts of Ms. Lively’s brands, including Betty Buzz and Betty Booze, were flooded with hateful comments that began to resonate on other social and traditional media. On information and belief, the astroturfing campaign is responsible for this wave of comments.

“None of Ms. Lively’s businesses could operate as before; instead, the Baldoni-Wayfarer astroturfing campaign caused every one of Ms. Lively’s businesses to “shut down” on social media in August. Ms. Lively did the same for almost two months and during that time failed to advertise or promote any of her businesses, all of which rely on her for support, causing problems with many business partners and clients.”

Over the summer, all of Blake Lively’s various Instagram accounts stopped posting as much. Her beverage brands Buetty Buzz and Betty Booze usually post photos several times a week, but nothing was uploaded between August 8 and September 8.

Apparently, sales of Blake Lively’s Blake Brown hair care products are down 56-78 percent. She also had to cancel a big corporate event for hair products from Target.

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Featured Image It Ends With Us by Sony. The Tab has contacted PR firm Melissa Nathan and Sarah Nathan for comment.