"Alternative advertising" is a relatively new term in the lexicon of marketing. It is also called "guerrilla marketing." The latter term describes quite well the tactics used in this kind of advertising. "Guerrilla" is defined by Merriam-Webster Online as "a person who engages in irregular warfare, especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage."

Guerrilla marketing relies on irregular, creative, unconventional means of reaching the public, usually through free or low-budget methods. We are accustomed (and perhaps inured) to seeing billboards, magazine ads, and television spots, all touting the virtue and value of many kinds of products and services we are being asked to buy. Guerrilla marketing operates through messages on escalator handrails, "takeout billboards" like coffee sleeves, pizza boxes, and Chinese takeout boxes, and free product samples handed out on the street.

Alternative advertising tends to be more interactive than the usual media advertising. It’s not always clear whether we are being entertained or targeted for a sale, whether we are a customer or someone with whom the advertiser has a personal relationship. This lack of clarity acts to benefit advertisers. We may have built up certain defenses, over time, against being persuaded by advertising to spend our precious money for something we don’t really need or want, or for a product of poor quality, or for something that costs more than we might spend elsewhere.

These defenses are like filters that we use to look at advertising. The filters are absent when we look at other aspects of our life, and without them we are more receptive to the advertiser’s message. For example, take any program on one of the very successful television "shopping channels." The viewer is encouraged to call in and chat with the host about the product being sold. Over a period of time, the viewer may come to think of certain hosts as friends whose opinion is valued. You’re more likely to buy an attractive product when you see a friend wearing it or otherwise enjoying it than when you just see it advertised in the usual fashion.

This increased susceptibility is precisely the goal of advertisers. It’s also the reason why guerrilla marketing is attracting more and more attention, much controversy, and a strong adverse reaction on the part of some sectors of the population.

Where is the Line Drawn?

In considering new media for guerrilla advertising, advertisers want to avoid those filters that people normally use when viewing advertising. It’s no accident that the vocabulary of alternative advertising mimics that of undercover warfare: a "covert initiative," "stealth advertising," "marketing under the radar." Blurring the edges between truth and falsehood, fact and fiction, life and advertising is a critical component, but it’s a risky one. These days, we live bombarded by information overload. It’s tricky for marketers to figure out creative ways to bypass our filters, get inside our heads and our hearts, and make us want that new product.

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