Guerrilla Communication

Guerrilla communication and communication guerrilla refer to an attempt to provoke subversive effects through interventions in the process of communication. It can be distinguished from other classes of political action because it is not based on the critique of the dominant discourses but in the interpretation of the signs in a different way. Its main goal is to make a critical non-questioning of the existing, for reasons ranging from political activism to marketing. In terms of marketing, journalist Warren Berger explains unconventional guerrilla-style advertising as "something that lurks all around, hits us where we live, and invariably takes us by surprise". These premises apply to the entire spectrum of guerrilla communication because each tactic intends to disrupt cognitive schemas and thought processing.

The term was created in 1997 by Luther Blissett and Sonja Brünzels, with the publication of Kommunication Guerrilla Handbook (originally in German, translated in 2001 to Spanish and Italian). Both pertain to autonome a.f.r.i.k.a gruppe, which includes many people involved in communication guerrillas such as activists and non-artists living in different German peripheries. However, it was used before in 1984 by Jay Conrad Levinson, as a marketing strategy for small businesses.