The Elusive Golden 'Stash

Something about the phrase 'guerrilla tactics' gets me excited. Just the idea of an unconventional and likely inexpensive ad campaign makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It's still a young market though, and in my opinion, vastly underrated. My favorite (and probably oddest) example of unconventional advertising comes straight out of Boston, Massachusetts.

I was visiting Boston with my family when we kept noticing the same sticker placed in random locations all over town. It was a simple cartoon figure of a man's face in black and white, except for a shiny and majestic golden mustache. The sticker gave no clues as to its origin, and were it not for it's location all over Boston, I would probably have just forgotten it; but the image kept haunting me, so my brother Travis and I decided to do some research to get to the bottom of the Golden 'Stash mystery.

We lit up Google, searching keywords like "moustache boston" and "boston sticker campaign" with no results. Finally Travis found a chat thread online that shed a little light on the situation. As far as we can tell, the "Golden 'Stash" was the brainchild of a random Bostonian artist with literally no agenda to fill. Like Shepard Fairey and his popular Andre the Giant 'OBEY' series in the mid-90's, this kid had created a viral marketing campaign, only he forgot one ingredient: Something to market!

The "Golden 'Stash" represents a new type of marketing that I believe is virtually untapped. By abandoning the professional polish (and sky-high production costs) of traditional advertising, companies have the opportunity to separate themselves from their competition and meet the consumer on their own level; the streets! Unconventional ads grab more attention, and if used correctly, can form stronger connections with your consumer base (just ask Shepard Fairey!) It will be interesting to see if the artist decides to capitalize on his campaign, but either way, he's got quite a following, and a new line of stickers every few months. Hi-rank advertising execs would be lucky to get their hands on this guy!