Dead Cat Strategy
Etymology
From the image of throwing a dead cat onto a dinner table: whatever people were discussing, they will now talk about the cat. The tactic is associated with the Australian strategist Lynton Crosby and was described in these terms by Boris Johnson in a 2013 newspaper column, crediting an "Australian friend." It is unrelated to the finance term "dead cat bounce," which shares the animal but not the meaning.
noun phrase · /DED kat STRAT-uh-jee/
Deliberately introducing a shocking or scandalous distraction to yank public attention away from a topic that is hurting you.
What it names
A specific misdirection play in politics and PR, useful for recognizing when an outrageous new story appears suspiciously well-timed to bury a worse one.
Example
The moment the budget scandal broke, out came a dead cat strategy — a manufactured culture-war row to change the subject.
Related idea
Flooding the zone buries the truth under many stories at once; the dead cat strategy is the more surgical version — one loud distraction aimed at one inconvenient topic.