Guerrilla Marketing: Counterinsurgency and Capitalism in Colombia

by Alexander L. Fattal

Brand warfare is real. Guerrilla Marketing details the Colombian government’s efforts to transform Marxist guerrilla fighters in the FARC into consumer citizens. Alexander L. Fattal shows how the market has become one of the principal grounds on which counterinsurgency warfare is waged and postconflict futures are imagined in Colombia. This layered case study illuminates a larger the convergence of marketing and militarism in the twenty-first century. Taking a global view of information warfare, Guerrilla Marketing combines archival research and extensive fieldwork not just with the Colombian Ministry of Defense and former rebel communities, but also with political exiles in Sweden and peace negotiators in Havana. Throughout, Fattal deftly intertwines insights into the modern surveillance state, peace and conflict studies, and humanitarian interventions, on one hand, with critical engagements with marketing, consumer culture, and late capitalism on the other. The result is a powerful analysis of the intersection of conflict and consumerism in a world where governance is increasingly structured by brand ideology and wars sold as humanitarian interventions.
 
Full of rich, unforgettable ethnographic stories, Guerrilla Marketing is a stunning and troubling analysis of the mediation of global conflict.
 

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published December 10, 2018

About the author

Alexander L. Fattal is Assistant Professor of Film/Video and Media Studies at Penn State.

Reviews

[Richard McColl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading less like an academic book and more like an in-depth ethnographic study of an advertising company and its role in branding and marketing a conflict. In this circumstance the conflict is in Colombia and this activity, led by the company from its lofty offices in Bogotá, has been labelled as "Militainment," and I cannot think of a better word to describe their work. In Fattal's extensively researched book, he analyzes the role of marketing in the individual demobilizing program and the way in which the Colombian government changed their course to wage an anti-guerrilla war. Here we see the belief that successful branding has the ability to reconcile the irreconcilable. Aside from the telling accounts of how and why individuals joined up with the FARC guerrillas, one of the key elements for me in this book was the difficulty that Fattal encountered as an "objective" observer. Information was shared with Fattal and people in the government wanted to hear his thoughts and he, correctly, denied them his feedback, leading to friction within the group. Read this book!

[Charel Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Fattal's book is advertised under Anthropology, Latin American Studies, and Media Studies I also recommend it to anyone who is interested in Peace and Conflict, as well as Critical War Studies. In approaching security issues from an anthropological perspective, Guerilla Marketing joins the ranks of Gusterson's Nuclear Rites and Masco's Theatre of Operation, but offers a wholly new perspective on the complex issues of conflict, insurgency, and demobilisation. Moreover, this book offers a fantastically nuanced insight into the woes of combatants 'post-conflict' and their multifaceted motivations to join an armed group in the first place.

[Amanda Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guerrilla Marketing is based off extensive research and it shows. Fortunately, you don’t need prior interest or expertise in Colombia to understand and fully enjoy this book. I did not have much knowledge on the region before beginning Guerrilla Marketing.
Fattal’s analysis of Colombia also applies on a global level. He has thought-provoking arguments about capitalism, the post-9/11 world, and neoliberalism. Captivating stories throughout the book held my attention. I enjoyed reading about “Operation Christmas” and loved the interviews with former FARC guerrillas after each chapter. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in media, politics, or Latin America.

[Jacob Tully · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book. Enjoyed it throughout. Dives deeply into the marketing techniques used by the government to demobilise (or rather REmobilise) FARC fighters. As with anything, the situation is so complicated. Whilst some of the personal accounts demonstrate the good that the demobilisation progress can bring about, such as relieving the fighters from immediate danger, the conditions the former fighters find themselves in once they are thrust into a merciless capitalist society leave some of them feeling more insecure than they did in the Sierra Nevada.

I found it so interesting how the M19 and Medellin cartel forged brands and harnessed the power of marketing in the late 90s.

This book is also interesting in the context of modern day warfare operating outside of the traditional mould of declaration -then war -then peace -then treaty.