What’s astroturfing? The secret PR tactic that’s key to Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni

So, Blake Lively has officially filed a legal complaint against Justin Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios. She claims he sexually harassed her, then Justin Baldoni launched a negative PR campaign against her as retaliation. Justin Bladoni is denying all the claims. Blake Lively’s official document keeps accusing Justin Baldoni of a secret PR strategy called “astroturfing”. So, what even is astroturfing? How does Blake Lively believe Justin Baldoni weaponised this technique against her? We’re here to explain it all for you.

What actually is astroturfing?

The legal complaint document says that the strategies which Justin Baldoni’s crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan proposed, “went well beyond standard crisis PR” and “included a practice known as ‘Astroturfing,’ which has been defined as ‘the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group'”. This definition comes from the Cambridge Dictionary, by the way.

The word “astroturfing” comes from the fake grass surface astroturf. Because it’s like a fake grassroots campaign. Get it?

Blake Lively in It Ends With Us
(Image via Sony)

Blake Lively’s argument is that Justin Baldoni’s PR team used astroturfing to wreck everyone’s opinion on her, as revenge for her complaining about him sexually harassing her. Her lawyers reckon that loads of the negative stories and social posts about Blake Lively which we all saw over the summer actually secretly came from Justin Baldoni’s PR team.

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

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Like, several times. The complaint reads, “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 a crisis PR, astroturfing, and digital retaliation campaign created and funded by Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer to hurt Ms. Lively.

“That is precisely the goal of an astroturfing campaign— to light the fire and continue to stoke conversations secretly, blurring the line between authentic and manufactured content, and creating viral public takedowns.”

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

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

The complaint document has many examples. Blake Lively’s team got all these texts through a subpoena. The messages are in all the document which was published by The New York Times.

So, on 5th August, Justin Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel texted him a screenshot of an X thread called “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying many women, not just Selena Gomez, throughout the years”. Jennifer Abel wrote, “This is what we would need.” Justin replied, “Literally just spoke to Melissa about this on the break about what we discussed last night for social and digital. Focus on Reddit, TikTok, IG.”

Image from the legal complaint

Blake Lively’s lawyers are suggesting that Justin Baldoni and his team could have used astroturfing to start similar social media threads about Blake Lively. The document isn’t suggesting the PR team started any theories about Hailey Bieber.

In a lengthy Facebook post, Jennifer Abel said she did plan “negative press” and “social combat” against Blake Lively, but that her team never had to do it themselves. She claims social media turned against Blake Lively anyway without Jennifer’s team orchestrating it.

Melissa Nathan’s sister Sara Nathan is a journalist for Page Six and the New York Post. She wrote an article on 13th August called, “Blake Lively approved final cut of ‘It Ends with Us’ amid feud with co-star director Justin Baldoni“. Blake Lively’s lawyers argue the phrasing in the article is very similar to texts between Melissa and Nathan. They think Melissa could have advised Sara to write things in the article which would make Justin Baldoni look better and Blake Lively look worse.

The Page Six article

A spokesperson for Sara Nathan and The New York Post told The Tab, “We urge you to actually read the two articles in question – they are not negative about Blake Lively. These were two of more than 50 stories about this issue. For all of our reporting, our standard procedure is to work with publicists, fact check, and incorporate feedback for accuracy.”

On 16th August, Melissa Nathan messaged members of Justin Baldoni’s PR team a Daily Mail article called “String of ‘hard to watch’ videos that have surfaced following ‘tone deaf’ Q&A to promote It Ends With Us could tarnish 36-year-old star’s golden Hollywood image for good“. The publicist Jennifer Abel replied, “Wow. You really outdid yourself with this piece”. Melissa Nathan messaged back, “That’s why you hired me right? I’m the best.”

Images from the legal complaint

Blake Lively reckons Justin Baldoni’s astroturfing had an impact on all her businesses

The document says, “Around the same time, the social media accounts for Ms. Lively’s brands – including Betty Buzz and Betty Booze – were flooded by hateful comments, which began to echo through other social and traditional media outlets. On information and belief, the astroturfing campaign was 25 responsible for this wave of comments.

“None of Ms. Lively’s businesses could operate as they ordinarily had before; instead, the Baldoni-Wayfarer astroturfing campaign forced each of Ms. Lively’s businesses to go “dark” on social media in August. Ms. Lively did the same, for nearly two months, and during this time was unable to market or promote any of her businesses, all of which rely on her support, causing issues with many business partners and customers.”

All the Instagram accounts for Blake Lively’s different businesses stopped posting as much during the summer. Her drinks brands Buetty Buzz and Betty Booze usually post pics several times a week, but didn’t upload anything between 8th August and 8th September.

Apparently sales of Blake Lively’s Blake Brown haircare products dropped by between 56 to 78 per cent. She also had to cancel a big corporate event for the hair products with Target.

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Feautred image of It Ends With Us via Sony. The Tab has contacted Melissa Nathan’s PR company for comment.