Jam boy

The jam boy is an urban legend of a solution to keep mosquitoes away from golfers: a boy, covered in jam, would follow the golfers and thus keep the mosquitoes occupied. While jam boys were probably not real, similar thinking has been applied for ages, for example:

• Farmers, seeking to protect their precious crops from pests, would plant cheap crops next to it that would be more attractive to pests.
• Sacrificial anodes in ships - or your water heater - corrode first, protecting the main structure.
• Cars are designed with "crumple zones", parts of the car that take the impact of a crash to protect the passengers.
• Even in nature: Many mammals have longer, coarser guard hairs on top of their softer underfur. These guard hairs take the brunt of abrasion and moisture, protecting the insulating underfur. They might get damaged or shed, but the underfur remains intact.

A big reason why consulting companies are hired isn't because they'd bring some magical insights to the company, but because when they recommend some unpopular action like layoffs or pay cuts (which the company probably wanted to do anyway), management can shift the blame to the consulting firm.

The idea is to deliberately limit losses to something you can control, to something expendable, so that you can protect the valuable.

• I guess the idea of a sacrificial group is a rather common trope in Hollywood: leaving or sending a few people to die, as some distraction or delay, so that the more valuable characters can live