Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Guerrilla Marketing

This dissertation examines the development of guerrilla marketing strategies and techniques. At the dawn of the 21st century, as the traditional advertising model evolves thanks to changes in technology, markets, commercial clutter, and audience cynicism, marketers are increasingly exploring new and re-imagining old ways of communicating brand messages and managing consumers. By studying the practice of guerrilla marketing – the umbrella term here for an assortment of product placement, outdoor alternative-ambient, word-of-mouth, and consumer-generated approaches – we can better understand an emergent media environment where cultural producers like advertisers strategize and experiment with the dissemination of information and the application of persuasion through covert and outsourced flows. Their creative license is remarkable not only in terms of content but equally that of context: expansively reconfiguring the space typically partitioned for commercial petition. As befitting a public relations mindset, the guerrilla message they seek to seed travels bottom-up, through invisible relay, or from decentralized corners so as to subtly engage audiences in seemingly serendipitous ways. Through a close examination of emblematic campaign examples, trade press coverage, and in-depth interviews with prominent practitioners, this project peels back the curtain on a form of cultural production that reworks the conventional archetype of mass communication and rethinks how consumers might be managed. Drawing upon Foucauldian theory that conceptualizes an active subject rather than a form of domination that has often defined the use of power, I argue that this is a regime of casual, if not “invisible” consumer governance that accommodates yet structures participatory agency; self-effaces its own authority and intent through disinterested spaces and anti-establishment formats; opens up the brand-text as a more flexible form; and democratizes in favor of heterarchical collaboration. It is, in short, advertising that tries not to seem like advertising. By studying the inspirations, machinations, and designs behind these campaigns to uncover and map the institutional discourse and cultural logic at work, I identify and analyze common themes of power and practice that animate otherwise disparate advertising executions and help redefine media industries

The elementary forms of sports fandom: A Durkheimian exploration of team myths, kinship, and totemic rituals

This essay explores sports fandom through a Durkheimian theoretical framework that foregrounds the totemic link between civic collective and team symbol. Specifically, I analyze the myths, kinship, and rituals of Philadelphia Phillies fans during their historic 2008 World Series victory in the U.S.’ professional baseball league using a limited participant observation of beliefs and behaviors on display at public events and articulated through the sports media. I argue that the totem’s success offered a momentous opportunity for intense social unity and reaffirmed group ideals—at both the civic and kin level—and mirrored a quasi-religious functionality at a moment of declining integrative institutions. The “collective effervescence” and communitas generated during this period represented a celebration of identity and indexed solidarity. The rituals attendant to the actual sports event are, I argue, as essential as what happens on the field, for these rituals preserve the collective memory that upholds the totem and, in turn, the group

The new media designs of political consultants: Campaign production in a fragmented era

New media technologies have been lauded for their potential in de-monopolizing gatekeeper power and rejuvenating democracy. This research inquires into how those changes in the media environment are affecting (and being affected by) consultants involved in the production of political communication. Drawing on dozens of in-depth interviews with these elite operatives, this study highlights how strategies are developed, practices are executed, and messages are encoded given increasing fragmentation and narrowcasting. It examines these consultants\u27 roles in managing the news agenda and political discourse by expanding partisan spaces online for content creation and narrowcasting more nuanced, flexible messages to targeted niches. This study concludes with consideration given to how these efforts might hinder certain public sphere ideals

Ethos groceries and countercultural appetites: Consuming memory in Whole Foods’ brand utopia

The essay discusses the role of the Whole Foods supermarket chain in the rise of ethical food consumption ideology in the U.S., specifically focusing on the way the grocery chain has appropriated this counter-cultural ideal as a means to increase profit. The increased popularity of the store among U.S. baby boomers is extensively analyzed. Broadly, the author is concerned with the ways in which such health food stores connect consumer culture with larger globalizing economic trends

Shooting for fame: Spectacular youth, web 2.0 dystopia, and the celebrity anarchy of generation mash-up

In this essay, I argue that the stories from Columbine and Virginia Tech in the U.S. and Jokela High School in Finland betray a disconcerting dystopia of user-generated content gone wrong at a moment of much Web 2.0 hype. I use their actions and the subsequent reaction as case-study portals into an era of celebrity anarchy and narcissistic youth. I then contextualize these youth shooters within a generational context of purported narcissism—suggesting that their attacks are both premeditated as well as premediated. I conclude by pondering the challenges journalists face in complying with youth shooters\u27 demand for celebrity and the possibility that, in the self-broadcasting world of Web 2.0, their role as gatekeepers may be more confounded than ever

A Voltage Calibration Chain for Meters Used in Measurements of EV Inductive Power Charging

The inductive charging of electric vehicles requires specific measurement and calibration systems. In fact, the measurement of power on board involves DC signals, which are superimposed to a significant AC ripple up to or over 150 kHz, depending on the type of charging system. A calibration method that makes use of a phantom power, based on two independent but synchronized circuits, is considered, simulating the charging voltage and current. This paper describes in detail a solution in the realization of the voltage calibration chain, based on the use of a DC voltage calibrator, an injector and a voltage divider.Comment: 2 pages, Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements (CPEM 2018), Paris

Asynchronous Phase Comparator for Characterization of Devices for PMUs Calibrator

This paper reports recent progress in developing a new asynchronous digital phase comparator for the precision measurement of phase difference of voltage ratio devices and calibration of functional elements of phasor measurement units (PMUs) calibrator. The phase error of the proposed digital comparator is below 300 nrad at 50 Hz and 100 μrad at 100 kHz with applied voltages ranging between 500 mV and 3 V, whereas the phase error of cables and connectors was estimated to be 4 μrad at 1 MHz. Besides resistive dividers, the phase comparator has been employed for the characterization of frequency behavior of phase difference between the output and input of voltage and transconductance amplifiers for a PMUs calibrator. The system can also be an important tool for phase-frequency characterization of devices employed for specific wideband power measurements