Guerrilla marketing tactics are frequently being used more and more these days to attack and discredit competitors within a particular industry. Typically, the guerilla marketer will go to a review site to post a negative comment about a competitor . However, this is not the only method employed – especially when a company has a very large discretionary budget. Such was the case when it was disclosed on Wednesday that Facebook had hired a public relations firm to push stories in the media that are critical of Google’s privacy policies. Facebook attempted to downplay its role by stating it did not authorize a “smear” campaign, but it did want to highlight that it did not agree with the way Google collects data. To a much greater level, one needs to question the way media outlets are being manipulated to mislead and deceive consumers.
