3 Examples of Guerrilla Marketing tactics in Philadelphia
1. Fly Derrie-Air from The Arcadia Project
In the Philadelphia Inquirer / Philadelphia Daily News / Philly.com, a few pages of ad space were used for “Derrie-Air” a fictional airline that charged passengers by their weight. It was an experimental stunt done by “The Arcadia Project” Direct from the Arcadia Project site:
The Arcadia Project is a sequence of five projects that together form a phenomenology of attentional economics and American pop culture at the beginning of the 21st century. Transmitted to the public through the medium of advertising, the Arcadia Project seeks to provoke new lines of thinking about the relationship between technology, the media, sex, truth, and the accelerating global economy. It sets forth advertising itself as a new system, a collective game we play to better understand ourselves and our place among one another.
Pretty frigging awesome if you ask me. It definitely garned a lot of attention in and out of the area. I remember hearing briefly about it, but was reminded and delved a little deeper thanks to the blog at guerrilla communications.
It’s a really cool research piece that worked wonders because at least I’m still here talking about it, and YOU are here reading about it! Thank the Philadelphia Daily News for running with this guerrilla marketing stunt.
I personally like it, but I’m a little more on the radical side, I would imagine. These grafitti-ads were placed in urban neighborhoods where grafitti was already present. Sony claimed to be trying to reach the “urban nomads” who would be interested in a PSP. Guerrilla Marketing or illegal destruction of property and illegal use of advertising? Eh, that’s up to the courts to decide, not me. I personally think it’s a great tactic that could be used, perhaps not with real grafitti though. Reverse grafitti anyone? That would be one hell of a guerrilla marketing / stealth marketing tactic if an artist could do a PSP drawing that way!
3. Pabst and Colt 45 get in on the world famous murals
This is one that goes against all ethics/education/knowing whats right in guerrilla marketing. In one of Philly’s many urban areas, a wall on the side of a small bike shop got a beautiful mural makeover. Only this time, it was of young people enjoying a party while drinking “COLT…45!” The Billy Dee Special. Even the slogan “works everytime” was incorporated. I am one for doing what must be done to sell product, but advertising malt liquor in this kind of a way is a little dirty. It’s no different than the “got a little captain in you” TV spots, but I don’t agree with them either. There comes a point where advertising harmful addictive products to YOUR OWN COMMUNITY is just plain wrong. If Colt 45 wants to advertise in a poor neighborhood, we can’t stop them. But if you want to benefit by giving them a wall for a stealth mural, that’s a little dirty. That goes beyond good guerrilla marketing and goes towards horrible taste…kinda like Colt 45.
There you have it. 3 of some of the most interesting guerrilla movements to hit Philly in the past couple of years. Stuff like this is what makes trying to launch your own marketing agency so much fun. A small company comes to you and you can stretch the budget in so many creative ways. It’s all about getting in that guerrilla mindset, but of course, keeping the marketing tasteful and professional.
Until next time….
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Filed under: Random Thoughts on December 10th, 2008
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