Motorola Tries to Astroturf Boing Boing, Hilarity Ensues

Boing Boing Gadgets was recently the victim of an overzealous comment spammer . Commenter “MGOODE08″ was noticed repeatedly posting comments which just happened to always mention the Motorola Krave. This tactic might have gone unnoticed if used sparingly, but MGOODE08 overdid it, writing loads of comments, all with similar (and laughable) wording.

For example:

I’m so glad my boss isn’t like that! I’m working with Motorola right now, and became a huge fan of the Krave (motorola.com/krave). I especially like the full touch screen display and html web browser. It’s awesome!

and:

Oh man this looks awesome! I hope they release a version for the Krave by Motorola. Ever since I started working with Motorola I have became a huge fan of the phone (motorola.com/krave). With a full list of features, like a full touch screen, I can’t stop obsessing over it.

This practice is known as “Astroturfing“, a name for a public relations campaign which creates the (false) impression of being spontaneous grassroots behavior. MGOODE08 gets around too. CrunchGear reports on some astroturfing going on at their site, and a Google search for “Ever since I started working with Motorola” turns up over a thousand results.

Boing Boing Gadgets: “Motorola, could you please tell your viral marketer to get out of our comments?”