Nowadays, things are remarkably different. Print, radio, and TV advertising are growing less effective with every day, and more businesses are competing for mainstream advertising space. What was once an on-off sales machine has been reduced to a playground available only for major brands, Fortune 500 corporations, and cash-flow positive companies.

But for the ambitious upstart, that doesn’t matter. Today’s smartest companies are embracing a new type of marketing: guerilla marketing. From subtle public advertising to long-term guerilla branding campaigns, even a low-budget guerilla marketing campaign can be a major success. Of course, not all guerilla marketing campaigns are successful. These seven guerilla marketing disasters illustrate just what can happen when a potentially brilliant guerilla marketing campaign doesn’t go to plan.

1. American Apparel’s $5 Million Screwup

American Apparel are well-known for their edgy advertising and sexually charged billboards. However, in 2008 the company decided to take a different approach to their mass marketing, running a completely non-sexual billboard that featured an image of Woody Allen surrounded by Hebrew symbols.

In a completely unsurprising move, Woody Allen objected to the unlicensed use of his image. After a bizarre courtroom scandal including nonsensical defenses, unusual accounts of Allen’s 1970s sex life, and a days-long summary of his adopted daughter’s personal life, American Apparel decided to settle for $5 million.

2. Hell Pizza’s Hitler Advertising Campaign

There’s an old saying, that there’s “no such thing as bad publicity”. Hell Pizza, a New Zealand pizza chain might have recently learned the hard way that there is such thing as bad publicity. After releasing a billboard featuring none other than Adolf Hitler, the pizza chain sat back, watched the news, and waited for the publicity to roll in.

Of course, the publicity did roll in, but likely not what the chain store was expecting. Rather than offended motorists, the company caught the attention of the human rights and advertising standards commissions. The billboard was packed up, moved to a new location, and quickly dismantled after the rapid wave of negative publicity.

3. The Boston Bomb Scare

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force film was up against some incredible box office odds. Based on a late-night cult TV show, the film had little chance of succeeding without some serious guerilla marketing efforts. The show’s marketers met and decided on a strategy – they’d fill US cities with small computer motherboards of the same design as one of the show’s characters.

Unfortunately, the public generally isn’t great at telling the difference between a motherboard and a bomb. The scattered motherboards attracted attention, namely than of the Boston Explosives Police. After mass media hysteria, a sizable fine, and some serious legal issues, the film was released to a lukewarm box office audience.

4. Golden Palace’s 2004 Olympic Hijack

Sponsored streaking isn’t a particularly rare occurrence at major sporting events. High profile games and matches give exhibitionists their moment in the spotlight, and ultra-risky brands are often willing to capitalize on the same exposure.

However, there’s one event that you don’t mess with. The Olympic Games are serious business, and even the slightest interruption can end up ruining an athletes one-off shot at success. Online casino Golden Palace made the mistake of sponsoring streakers for the 2004 Olympics – a move that earned them universal criticism and some seriously negative brand attention.

5. I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell’s Advertising Failure

Tucker Max’s 2009 movie I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell was fighting the odds right from the start. With a thin budget, a complete lack of Hollywood stars, and a turbulent filming schedule, box office success would have been a true miracle. However, the film’s failure was cemented after a series of bizarre advertising efforts, most notably the films highly misogynistic marketing campaign.

Designed to stir up discussion, the film posters went well beyond just starting conversation. After a series of feminist-lead protests, the Chicago CTA bus system decided to remove all of the film’s promotional advertising. From New York to Los Angeles, the remaining film posters suffered vandalization, destruction, and a variety of mocking slogans.

6. All I Don’t Want for Christmas is a PSP

If there’s one thing internet users hate, it’s astroturfing. When big brands and major companies pose as individual consumers, it’s very rare for anything positive to happen. Frauds are quickly found out, and just as quickly exposed and publicly shamed.

Facing hot competition from the Nintendo DS, Sony decided that their marketing strategy needed a new edge. A guerilla-style promotional website called “All I Want For Christmas is a PSP” was launched, complete with “fan written” PSP testimonials and information. Of course, online gamers quickly saw through the site’s unconvincing copy, ran a WHOIS check, and realized it was registered to Sony.

While Sony eventually pulled the website, their reputation amongst serious online gamers was permanently tarnished. Ask any hardcore gamer about the PSP and you’ll likely hear about this major guerilla marketing disaster before any of the console’s gaming merits.

7. The Coke “Zero” Movement

Leading up the launch of Coke Zero, a rebranded version of Diet Coke for men that’s essentially identical to its predecessor, Coke launched a blog called The Zero Movement. Now this is no big deal – brands use blogs to their advantage all the time, and some smart corporate marketers have built whole new products on the power of a single blog.

What separates Coke from every other branded blog is that The Zero Movement was presented as something that was unbiased and unassociated with Coke. Visitors quickly realized that Coke had simple purchased the domain name, created a fake archive of posts, and launched the website as a marketing tool. After mass revolt from social bookmarking communities and popular online forums, Coke changed The Zero Movement into a completely blog-free promotional website.