4 of the Funniest Video Guerrilla Marketing Stunts

Guerrilla marketing is a fascinating way to promote brands that most everyone can enjoy if done well. Public guerrilla ads usually utilize some form of large printed materials or physical object to interact with innocent bystanders. Then there are these video forms of ads that can be done in smaller settings with the hope of the ad going viral on the internet as many of these have. The print guerrilla ads are still amazing, but I feel like you really have to be there to get the full effect, whereas these video ads get you closer to the feel of the live event. Here are some of the greatest guerrilla video ads we’ve seen.

1. Coca-Cola Happiness Truck

Although we don’t think Coca-Cola is good for people most of the time, they really know how to entertain people in public spaces with free soda. Starting out in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and moving throughout the area, they dispense the syrupy concoction wherever they park. If we don’t necessarily love giving out sugar water, we can argue with them giving out free surfboards, which they do at one point of the episode.

2. Nivea Stress Test Airport Prank

This one is just pure evil and almost hard to watch at first. Don’t know how I would react in this situation but it might involve running as fast as I could. You have to admire that most of these people were able to keep their cool until the very end. We hope that the victims got a little bit more than an advertisement stuck in front of their face.

I’m a big fan of these real-time news pranks that involve directly interacting with the victims. We saw this earlier in a Heineken ad that involved the victims winning tickets to the Championship game. Only very recently I believe have we had the technology to do this in real time and really make the pranks that much scarier.

3. Carlsberg Friendship Test Ad

This one takes you on a truly emotional roller coaster. Like something out of Beerfest and The Hangover combined, the poker player (accomplice) is in a sticky situation at a poker game and they have to call their friend (victim) to bail them out for $300 Euros. Oh, and it’s between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. in an unsavory location. What strikes me the most is that the woman friend in the prank is the bravest once she gets to the poker location and has to fight her way through a motley crew of fighters and gypsies. Carlsberg hits it out of the park with this one, although this theme of severely stressing out the victims for some viral marketing has me seriously questioning the ethics of it all.

4. LG ‘Stage Fright’ Men’s Bathroom Prank

This one is a lot less stressful than the last LG TV prank that had interviewees thinking doomsday was hitting. This one gets a little raunchier. As unsuspecting restroom patrons approach their urinals to look at hot dog ads, they’re met with crystal clear images of what are probably some of the best looking models we’ve ever seen. As these women come onto the screen and, ahem, distract the men, there is a separate camera videotaping the whole event from within the bathroom. Again, we’d love to read up on the legality of filming these commercials, or perhaps review the extensive releases they must’ve signed. In the end we’re glad some ad agencies have the cajones to put out commercial pranks like these.

What we’ve seen here is a lot of large consumer products companies that are driving up mass-awareness and brand interest with these ads that go viral on YouTube online. Smaller businesses and business-to-business companies can still be inspired by the cleverness of these ads to infuse a little bit of delight into their marketing portfolio and perhaps reduce the number of phone book and flyer ads.

I love hearing all about what ads interest you.

4 of the Funniest Video Guerrilla Marketing Stunts