7 Guerilla Marketing Disasters

March 04, 2010, by Informationguerilla.org.


Fifty years ago, a company would launch a product through print advertising, the occasional radio advertisement, and if big enough, maybe even a TV advertisement. Everything was pre-planned, orchestrated, and offered some form of security. There were always going to be viewers, readers, and listeners to target, and even if a campaign ‘failed’, there would still be at least some return on the investment.

Nowadays, things are remarkably different. Print, radio, and TV advertising are growing less effective with every day, and more businesses are competing for mainstream advertising space. What was once an on-off sales machine has been reduced to a playground available only for major brands, Fortune 500 corporations, and cash-flow positive companies.

But for the ambitious upstart, that doesn’t matter. Today’s smartest companies are embracing a new type of marketing: guerilla marketing. From subtle public advertising to long-term guerilla branding campaigns, even a low-budget guerilla marketing campaign can be a major success. Of course, not all guerilla marketing campaigns are successful. These seven guerilla marketing disasters illustrate just what can happen when a potentially brilliant guerilla marketing campaign doesn’t go to plan.

1. American Apparel’s $5 Million Screwup

American Apparel are well-known for their edgy advertising and sexually charged billboards. However, in 2008 the company decided to take a different approach to their mass marketing, running a completely non-sexual billboard that featured an image of Woody Allen surrounded by Hebrew symbols.

In a completely unsurprising move, Woody Allen objected to the unlicensed use of his image. After a bizarre courtroom scandal including nonsensical defenses, unusual accounts of Allen’s 1970s sex life, and a days-long summary of his adopted daughter’s personal life, American Apparel decided to settle for $5 million.

2. Hell Pizza’s Hitler Advertising Campaign

 There’s an old saying, that there’s “no such thing as bad publicity”. Hell Pizza, a New Zealand pizza chain might have recently learned the hard way that there is such thing as bad publicity. After releasing a billboard featuring none other than Adolf Hitler, the pizza chain sat back, watched the news, and waited for the publicity to roll in.

Of course, the publicity did roll in, but likely not what the chain store was expecting. Rather than offended motorists, the company caught the attention of the human rights and advertising standards commissions. The billboard was packed up, moved to a new location, and quickly dismantled after the rapid wave of negative publicity.

3. The Boston Bomb Scare

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force film was up against some incredible box office odds. Based on a late-night cult TV show, the film had little chance of succeeding without some serious guerilla marketing efforts. The show’s marketers met and decided on a strategy – they’d fill US cities with small computer motherboards of the same design as one of the show’s characters.

Unfortunately, the public generally isn’t great at telling the difference between a motherboard and a bomb. The scattered motherboards attracted attention, namely than of the Boston Explosives Police. After mass media hysteria, a sizable fine, and some serious legal issues, the film was released to a lukewarm box office audience."

For the rest of the examples, visit: http://www.informationguerrilla.org/2010/03/7-guerilla-marketing-disasters/