Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-02-05/Astroturfing Wikipedia

In a case of living up (or down?) to its contribution to the English language, AstroTurf became the object of an astroturfing effort on Wikipedia. A public relations firm for the brand was revealed to have been editing the article, as well as that of a competing brand of artificial turf, FieldTurf.

Beginning on Thursday, 1 February, a number of edits from the IP address 216.248.156.53 started appearing on both articles. These added speedy deletion tags to sections of the FieldTurf article, claiming that they were spam, and removed references to FieldTurf and other unfavorable information from the AstroTurf article. The IP address was identified based on WHOIS records as belonging to Richard French & Associates, a North Carolina public relations firm now known as French | West | Vaughan. The person responsible then registered an account as User:Tygast411, and self-identified on the user page as an Art Director for that agency.

Included on the client list for French | West | Vaughan is the Michigan company General Sports Turf Systems. That company was renamed General Sports Venue last year, and in December announced an exclusive partnership to market the AstroTurf brand. The deal includes Archie Manning, father of Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning, as spokesperson for AstroTurf, and the timing of this incident so close to the Super Bowl is intriguing.

The marketing has emphasized an effort to rehabilitate AstroTurf's reputation. Older installations of AstroTurf have been frequently criticized in the sports world as too hard, being installed over concrete and failing to adequately simulate grass field conditions. It has been cited as increasing injury risks, including in circumstances where players have been injured without being touched, and has further contributed to the lexicon with the phrase turf toe.

FieldTurf is the trademark of another company that makes synthetic turf, which is installed over a mixture designed to better imitate the feel of natural soil. Surfaces of this type have received more positive reviews and gained a significant presence in the market. The more advanced design has been the subject of litigation between the two brands, which also compete for contracts to install their products on athletic fields in North America.

With Wikipedia editors watchful in the aftermath of the Microsoft editing controversy, the activity on these articles produced a few rounds of reverts over the disputed content. Tygast411 began discussing the issue on the talk pages after registering, and eventually after having the conflict of interest policy pointed out, agreed to focus on participating there instead. He also provided a response to this story, found on the talk page, declaring his intent was "only to remove existing marketing language, incorrect information, and update existing information to make the article both more neutral and more informative."

This is not the first case of Wikipedia image-burnishing from the sports world. Activity on the recently renamed Delta Center arena in Utah was traced to both EnergySolutions, the company that bought the naming rights to the facility, and a company owned by Larry H. Miller, owner of the arena and the Utah Jazz franchise that plays there.