The expression carrotmob takes inspiration from the (also relatively new) noun compound flash mob. First emerging in the summer of 2003, a flash mob is a large group of people who, summoned by some kind of Internet-based communication, gather en masse in a pre-determined location, briefly perform some mildly humorous activity, and quickly disperse again, the whole thing intended to be a kind of practical joke. A carrotmob therefore develops this idea by cleverly exploiting the money-making potential of the crowd, creating unexpectedly large profits and thereby sweetening the pill of investment in greener business practices.