From Wikipedia: Dead cat strategy

For our look at politics. 

This is intended to distract people.

- Click here for the entry. 

The dead cat strategy, also known as deadcatting, is the political strategy of deliberately making a shocking announcement to divert media attention away from problems or failures in other areas. The present name for the strategy has been associated with British former prime minister Boris Johnson's political strategist Lynton Crosby.

While he was mayor of London, Boris Johnson wrote a column for the 3 March 2013 edition of The Telegraph in which he described the "dead cat" as a piece of Australian political strategy about what to do in a situation in which the argument is being lost and "the facts are overwhelmingly against you".

There is one thing that is absolutely certain about throwing a dead cat on the dining room table – and I don't mean that people will be outraged, alarmed, disgusted. That is true, but irrelevant. The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout, "Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!" In other words, they will be talking about the dead cat – the thing you want them to talk about – and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.

Johnson employed the Australian Lynton Crosby as his campaign manager during the 2008 and 2012 London mayoral elections, leading to press speculation that he was the "Australian friend" in the story.

Other similar strategies: 

- Chewbacca defense – Nonsensical diversionary legal defense strategy
- Diversionary foreign policy – Conflict instigated to distract from domestic strife
- Fearmongering – Deliberate use of fear-based tactics
- Red herring – Fallacious approach to mislead an audience
- Wag the dog – Diversional political strategy, often military in nature