guerrilla marketing

Peak Drug Industry Body Sin Bins Roche

Submitted by Bob Burton on July 22, 2008 - 12:40am

The Swiss drug company Roche has been suspended from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) after adverse findings over its promotion of the weight-loss drug Xenical.

Main Source: 
Financial Times (UK), July 15, 2008

What the $&@%?! Authentic Fake-Reality Ads Are Grabbing Viewers' Attention

Submitted by Anne Landman on July 8, 2008 - 10:23pm

Advertisers are increasingly writing swear words into television commercial scripts just so they can bleep them out.

Main Source: 
Advertising Age, July 8, 2008

The True Story of a Bogus Blog

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on May 8, 2008 - 2:55pm

Writing for AdWeek, Andrew Adam Newman reports that a deceptive PR campaign on behalf of the Coach bag company has become "the latest illustration of how a buzz-seeking stunt may backfire." Led by Paul Werth Associates, an Ohio PR firm, the "International AntiCounterfeiting Campaign" (IACC) sought to discourage people from buying knockoff handbags.

Main Source: 
Adweek, May 5, 2008

Teaching College Kids to Lie

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on March 16, 2008 - 5:37pm

Additional details have surfaced about the story we mentioned last month regarding a corporate-sponsored hoax at Hunter College. The college receives donations from the Coach Corporation, a manufacturer of handbags, shoes and other women's accessories. In particular, Coach funded a "guerrilla marketing" class that "educated" students about the dangers of knockoff products by creating a fictional student named "Heidi Cee" who claimed that she had been conned by a counterfeit Coach handbag.

Main Source: 
Inside Higher Ed, March 3, 2008

Fake vs. Fakes

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on February 21, 2008 - 7:48am

In a Youtube video, "Heidi Cee" lamented the loss of her Coach handbag, compared product counterfeiting to terrorism, and warned that coun

Main Source: 
Ben Kessler's blog, February 19, 2008

Presidential Election Season Brings New, More Stupid 527 Groups

Submitted by Conor Kenny on January 27, 2008 - 5:56pm

The Huffington Post and TPM Muckraker highlight the newest activities of Roger Stone, whose past includes a stint as the "youngest dirty trickster" for Richard Nixon and a recent alleged prank call to Eliot Spitzer's father. Stone has formed a new 527 campaign group with a name that forms an obscene acronym. The group's purpose, according to Stone, is simply to sell T-shirts associating Hillary Clinton with that expletive.

Main Source: 
Huffington Post, January 24, 2008

An Industry Look at 2007's Biggest PR Blunders

Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on December 21, 2007 - 9:55pm

Fineman PR of San Francisco, California, has released their list of top ten PR blunders of 2007. Topping the list at number one is "No Reporters?

Main Source: 
The Huffington Post, December 15, 2007

Featured Participatory Project: Help Expose the Attempts to Spin Wikipedia (Week 2)

Submitted by Conor Kenny on September 5, 2007 - 12:24am

Last week we started a new participatory project to expose the government agencies, corporations and lobbying groups that have been censoring, whitewashing or otherwise spinning Wikipedia. (See CMD Senior Researcher Diane Farsetta's great blog post for some background on this sordid tale.) So far we've logged several attempts at spin into the respective SourceWatch profiles, including:

Drug Gets a Cameo in a Film Backed by Its Maker

Submitted by John Stauber on February 21, 2007 - 8:49pm

Stephanie Saule reports that "Innerstate, a documentary about three people coping with disabling chronic illness, may be coming to a theater near you. If so, admission will be free, courtesy of the drug maker that produced the film. The 58-minute film ... is an unusual form of soft-pedal marketing of a blockbuster drug, Remicade. The documentary never specifically mentions Remicade, or the product’s maker, Centocor, a unit of Johnson & Johnson. Instead, it focuses on several of the autoimmune diseases Remicade is approved to treat: rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and Crohn’s disease. ... The film, directed by Chris Valentino and produced by the Creative Group, is the latest twist on a business trend toward blending advertising and entertainment."

Main Source: 
New York Times, February 21, 2007

Guerrilla Marketing Gone Bad in Boston

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on February 2, 2007 - 11:53am

Turner Broadcasting apologized "for a marketing campaign that sparked Boston's biggest security scare since the September 11, 2001, attacks -- closing bridges, shutting major roads and putting hundreds of police on alert." The "outdoor marketing campaign" promoting an Adult Swim cartoon "had been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia." Boston police feared that the magnetic lightboards of cartoon characters might be bombs. According to PR Week, Turner Broadcasting has "hired outside PR and legal counsel" to recover from its "marketing stunt gone bad." Turner "declined to name the agency" it hired for PR assistance, and said it had not yet decided whether to continue to work with Interference, the agency that developed the lightboard campaign. Associated Press reports that Turner has "agreed to pay $2 million" to local Boston and Massachusetts state agencies.

Main Source: 
Reuters, January 31, 2007
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