John, one of our in-house media editors and Premise Observers, sent me a link to this video the other day and it got me thinking about just how risky guerrilla marketing campaigns can really be.




Although that video is quite far-fetched, it doesn't seem totally unthinkable considering some of the guerrilla marketing stunts that have hit our headlines over the last few years. Marketers and the brands they represent are getting more outrageous and unconventional with every campaign.


Golden Palace (www.goldenpalace.com), perhaps one of the 'greats' (I use that term loosely, as I personally feel some of their campaigns to be a bit over the top), has used a slew of tactics to push their brand into the spotlight and in the meantime generated some heavy blogging buzz around them. They've done it all, from streaking stunts to tattooing, to cow-painting (maybe it's the PETA member in me, but this just doesn't sit well. And, yes, I do realize that they had PETA's blessing on this one...something I still don't understand). You may even remember the name Golden Palace as the lucky bidder who took home the Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese from ebay (for a price tag of $28K). I'm still left thinking, "What does an online casino want with an old grilled cheese sandwich?" Publicity, that's what they want and that's exactly what they got.

How about Taco Bell constructing a 40ft by 40ft floating raft in the South Pacific and offering free tacos if any piece of the Mir spacecraft should happen to land on it. Sounds crazy right? Taco Bell's website nearly crashed as millions flocked to find out more information and they received international press coverage. End cost to Taco Bell = one raft.


Probably the most notable guerrilla campaign was the promotion of Aqua Teen Hunger Force causing a massive bomb scare in Boston in 2007. Light-bright style devices were attached to random city structures intending to provoke curiosity among the city-dwellers. Instead, these lights were mistaken for bombs and in the end Turner Broadcasting paid for the mishap. On the other hand, this promotion got national news coverage and Aqua Teen Hunger Force saw weeks of free publicity.

So, I ask myself, "Is it true what they say, is there really 'no such thing as bad publicity?'"

-Lindsay, Campaign Manager
Lunch today: pasta, salad and yummy bread (compliments of Pasta Bravo)