Rosser Reeves, the accomplished advertising executive credited with coining the term "unique selling proposition," once said, "The people who read and remember your advertising may buy less of your product than people who are not aware of your advertising at all. Your advertising, in other words, may, literally, be driving away customers." With this reality in mind, some brands have cheekily taken to using anti-marketing sentiments to their advantage. Newcastle routinely makes fun of its own advertising, even boldly describing its own Facebook page as "Your place to complain about our ads."

When marketing thinkers talk about "the death of traditional advertising," they may not only mean the shift to digital, but a much larger transformation to alternative methods of genuinely reaching the consumer. According to Indrajit Sinha and Thomas Foscht, authors of "Reverse Psychology Marketing: The Death of Traditional Marketing and the Rise of the New 'Pull' Game," reverse psychology marketing, pull marketing, and anti-marketing may not be familiar buzzwords yet, but there is a global change happening in terms of defining the most effective ways to communicate with consumers and increase sales. To accomplish these goals amid overwhelming noise in the digital world, it often takes the most daring ideas.

For London department store Selfridges, that daring idea was to actually remove branding. The No Noise project of 2013 centered around the re-launch of the store's Silence Room, first created by founder Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1909, to allow customers to "take a moment to pause and switch off." This inspired move drew in customers by offering them a place to shop that was intentionally devoid of advertising. Of course, the brand behind many products remained recognizable, since a shell of its logo often remained present. Regardless, minimal advertising is beginning to draw in modern customers as well. Though not yet as popular in Europe and the U.S., the Japanese are already calling it "zen advertising."

In terms of alternative marketing, capitalizing on psychological principles is certainly not new territory. Leveraging reverse psychology can be a controversial choice, and certainly a risky one, but even church billboards  have seen success with this simple tactic. Reverse psychology can be loosely defined as a method of getting someone to do what you want by pretending not to want it or by pretending to want something else. This is largely tied in with reactance theory, the idea that people who feel their sense of control is being taken away from them will grab it back by not doing what they are asked.

Blogger Jens-Petter Berget writes, "The reason why reverse psychology in marketing works is that it generates curiosity." For this reason, it is not a technique that can be drawn upon frequently and still remain effective, as it will quickly lose its magic. However, once in a while, there are special moments when an ad's message of forbiddance succeeds in not only coyly tricking a consumer, but doing so in a way that isn't off-putting, but even a source of amusement for the consumer.

Here are seven examples of advertisements that leveraged reverse psychology.