I recently wrote about a marketing technique which I presumptuously labeled ‘marketing jujitsu’ – taking negative corporate brand perception and making it into a de facto brand enhancer. Apparently, major corporations are spending some time in the jujitsu dojo, as recent campaigns are demonstrating that marketing jujitsu may be more than simple gimmickry.

For instance, the French division of McDonald’s launched ads that suggested the unthinkable: kids shouldn’t eat McDonald’s meals more than once a week. That’s right, an advertising campaign that promoted less, not more, consumption.

The print campaign featured information from nutritionists and ran mostly in French women’s magazines. Although the ads described the ‘100% real beef’ of Mickey D’s burgers and other positive nutritional factoids, a tidbit from a quoted specialist suggested that ‘there’s no reason to abuse fast food, or visit McDonald’s more than once a week.’

Illinois-based McDonald’s ‘strongly disagreed’ with the nutritionist’s assessment, the AP reported.

But the perception of the company in France has certainly benefited from the admission, especially in a society where anti-globalization protesters and farmers have targeted the fast food behemoth.

Recent price wars with other fast-food concerns and industry saturation have contributed to an ailing corporate climate for McDonald’s, which announced dismal fourth-quarter results and is planning to shut down operations in three countries. Perhaps McDonald’s execs in France thought a bit of jujitsu can bring a little vigour into the burger slinger’s performance.

On another fast-food tip, a recent People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaign is trying to convince its members and activists ‘to put down their protest signs and put on their bibs.’ PETA has decided to advertise for…Burger King, the mecca of red-meat gluttony. The non-profit organization’s higher-ups have put their weight behind the BK Veggieburger, deciding to turn on their vegan brethren and shill the legume patty (with or without mayonnaise).

Although the veggie chat rooms are still laden with disappointment for PETA’s whole-hearted support for the burger (there is even a microsite devoted to the Veggieburger off of PETA.org), the very fact that Burger King could team up with a quasi-militant organization like PETA speaks volumes of the types of market niches that corporations are trying to reach, speak to and acquire credibility from.

For instance, Microsoft partnered with Kazaa – one of the leading peer-to-peer file-sharing networks – to promote its Windows Media 9 format. The alliance seems oxymoronic: Kazaa is closely linked with file piracy, copyright infringement and unauthorized distribution, and Microsoft is notorious for protecting its proprietary technology, enough to be sued in federal court for anti-trust violations.

And yet, the marriage makes perfect sense: in order to showcase the anti-piracy capabilities of Media 9, a limited release on a piracy hub like Kazaa is an ideal testing ground. Established Hollywood media companies are still stunned that Microsoft would legitimize peer-to-peer file-sharing, yet acknowledge that Windows Media is now on their radars as a viable industry standard for file-sharing networks.

At the same time, Microsoft may be slowly winning over the legions of digi-swappers, who are predominantly young and technologically hyper-literate – Microsoft’s most lucrative future customer base.

In a blur of commercialism and spirituality, GM sponsored an evangelical concert tour to buckle up the Bible Belt last month. The ‘Chevrolet Presents: Come Together and Worship’ tour featured a multimedia worship service, distribution of free evangelical pamphlets and a concert by holy rockers Third Day. The average venue size for the tour was 14,000 seats. That’s no tent revival; it’s a major tour.

So is Chevy a God-approved truck? Are the Four Horsemen really Cavaliers? On the surface, a major corporation sponsoring religion is unsettling to many people. But why? Major corporations have for years sponsored contentious gay pride initiatives and campaigns, enough so that some non-profit gay rights organizations have come to bemoan the saturation of corporate presence in a rights movement. What makes the religious movement verboten to advertisers?

It’s just good niche marketing. Corporations are willing to take some marketing risks, even if it means raising some eyebrows and objections along the way. Marketing jujitsu supposes that to reach an untapped market, some strange bedfellows might need to be made. Sometimes, the stranger the better.

Max Lenderman is partner and CD at Gearwerx, a youth marketing company based in Montreal. He can be reached at mlenderman@gearwerx.com.