Attack of the Guerrilla

Like most people who live in urban areas I have experienced Guerilla marketing, although in Ottawa it doesn’t seem too abundant to be what I would consider invasive. Most of the Guerilla marketing techniques I’ve experienced in Ottawa were on billboards, transit or the sides of buildings and were more in the category of creative outdoor advertising. When I was visiting New York City, particularly in Time Square, one of the most famous areas for outdoor advertising, I found the ads overwhelming. The P. Diddy ad for Sean Jean is most prevalent. Here the ad world has created a tourist destination for ads. Seeing the latest outdoor and guerilla advertising compete for attention in this area has become a novelty for travellers and is rarely considered negative. It makes me wonder what NYC would look like without the ads. A lot less colourful certainly. And is that a good or bad thing for NYC? I think most of us have accepted it for what it is.

However, the examples of Guerilla marketing found in the video Urban Spam show a different side of it. While some Guerilla ads are amusing and creative, causing positive buzz for the client, others are disruptive, distasteful and inappropriate. I’m talking about the ads that take over entire building sides or have nudity or sexual content in them. These ads are not the greatest image for an unwitting citizen to have to witness, not to mention a child. And we have no control over where, when we see these images. They are crafted to be unavoidable and capture attention, rather than earn it. It isn’t really targeted other than geographically and is it really doing positive things for the brand? Would a mother with her child be attracted to the lingerie ads, or simply appalled that her child had to see them?

In my opinion Guerilla marketing is risky, and should never have become a mainstream way to advertise. If the entire point of it is to do something different and innovative, it will soon be lost in this growing trend. Not to mention the damage it is doing to our cityscapes. That being said if it is done properly, tastefully and cleverly with the right audience reached it is sometimes worth the risk.

Under: Creative

By phyatt with No comments