Guerrilla marketing

The coining of the term guerrilla marketing is attributed to Jay Conrad Levinson. It is commonly used as a term to describe ways that creative low-budget but high impact campaigns can be waged to promote a product. (While Levinson's book was pitched to the small business sector many of tactics are also commonly used in grass roots advocacy and political campaigns).

A "stealth marketing campaign" by Sony in Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York and other large U.S. cities in later 2005 generated controversy. The "ads" are "black-on-white graffiti" with "wide-eyed cartoon characters riding a PlayStation like a skateboard, licking it like a lollipop or cranking it like a Jack-in-the-Box." A Philadelphia official sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sony, due to its zoning violations. "This really flies in the face of everything we've been trying to do with our anti-blight initiative," he said. "It's all about hip-hop, urban and all that," said a local worker. "They're just trying to get into the teenagers' minds." 

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * viral marketing
 * buzz
 * Using DJ's For Marketing