Surprise stunts and guerrilla marketing campaigns can spark a media firestorm, but sometimes it can also get you burned. In 2006, when the Cartoon Network set out to promote “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” with a 10-market ambush marketing effort, the company never could have imagined the publicity the stunt would generate. It also couldn’t have imagined the $2 million penalty it ended up paying to Boston-area authorities after placing black boards with blinking lights depicting the show’s “Mooninites” characters in high-trafficked areas.

Mountain Dew’s DEWmocracy 2 Tour, a seven-stage, 12 month consumer-driven campaign that launched in July 2009, culminated on Memorial Day weekend in Indianapolis where three flavor teams encouraged 700,000 Indy 500 parade spectators and race day attendees to sample and vote for one of three new consumer-created DEW beverages.

 As part of its summer tune-in strategy, TLC targeted New Yorkers on May 25 with a live stunt that featured a glass box truck filled with 7,200 gallons of water parked on a busy block of Sixth Avenue. 

Cartoon Network is refreshing its six-year-old tour by changing its platform from Get Animated to the Move-It-Movement. The new tour and website (moveitmovement.com) offers activity stations and tips for families on how to combat childhood obesity through a healthy lifestyle. The 30-city tour kicked off on May 1 in Washington D.C. and will continue to visit local baseball and soccer games, community parks and festivals until its last stop on Aug. 3 in St. Louis.

To drive awareness and generate leads for its Palm Pre Plus smartphone, Palm in June launched a six-week summer tour. The initiative includes 18 brand ambassadors traveling in nine fully wrapped Palm-branded Smart cars in high traffic areas in nine cities.