Since one learning outcome of part 2 is to “examine different forms of communication within the media”, we also need to look at the wonderful world of ‘guerrilla’ and ‘ambient’ advertising.
Guerrilla and ambient advertising involve the unique placement of unique ads, which makes their meaning dependent on the physical context in which they appear.
The ‘Oldtimer’ rest stop ad you can see below illustrates the concept of guerrilla and ambient advertising quite well. A picture of an open mouth with the heading ‘All you can eat Rest stop’ conveys meaning when the mouth is actually eating something, literally, which happens to be these cars that drive through the mouth and into a tunnel.
The term ‘ambient’ refers to the ad’s dependence on its physical surroundings. The term ‘guerrilla’ refers to the fact that these ads are not always placed with the permission of the person or organization that owns the space in which the ads are placed.
Just as ‘guerrilla’ warfare breaks the rules of war, guerrilla ads often break the conventions of advertising. They started in the 1990s as a subversive form of marketing, with stickers on light posts (the famous ‘Hope’ poster of Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey is an example of one such sticker - google it). Originally guerrilla ads were inexpensive and part of a counter-culture. Today guerrilla advertising is also conducted by mainstream, commercial organizations.
Some examples:
http://www.cucocreative.co.uk/articles/what-is-ambient-advertising-and-why-should-you-care/
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/09/22/guerrilla-marketing-examples
Questions to ask when analysing such adverts:
Who has placed this ad in this location and how is it context dependent?
How might the ad make viewers think differently about a particular product or idea?
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