The concept of advertising is something I fully understand, both as a consumer and someone who does advertising, mostly for my blogs and photography. What I’m not fond of is paying to advertise for someone else. Lets forget about the argument on clothing and brand names for a minute, that is a whole rant unto itself. Lets look at the automotive industry for a minute.Car salesman (and woman) are considered to be some of the scummiest people on earth, usually paired right next to lawyers. No one likes to deal with these types of people and I can honestly say that in all the years of buying cars, I’ve never bought one from a major car dealership for this very reason. Likewise, I cannot tell you of one positive experience anyone I know has had at a dealership, no one has ever said to me, “Mike, the experience I had buying my car at … was amazing!” This leads me to my rant for today.

Why on earth do car dealerships insist on branding a car with their name, logo, website and whatever else they can throw at it? While driving home recently I was behind a pick-up truck, the tailgate had the dealerships emblem, there was a license plate frame that had the name, phone number and website of the dealership and there was a hitch cover in place, again adorned with the dealerships name and logo. No dealer tag though, which leads me to belive that the person driving it did not work there. I’ve also seen several Hummers and Jeeps that have the exposed spare tire attached to the rear of the car have vinyl covers on them, silk screened with the dealerships name, logo, website and phone number on it. Never once have I been behind a car and said, “self, that’s a fine looking car, I should probably go to that dealership and talk to them about buying it.”

It gets even worse! Here in Pennsylvania we have no front license plate law, meaning we only have a rear one. Most cars on the market today come with smooth front bumpers and have the holes and brackets to accept the front plate for those states which require it hidden under a layer of paint and thin plastic. This is done for aesthetics by the car manufactor, but does give provisions for a plate to go there. Some dealerships feel it is their duty to put a vanity plate in the front advertising their dealership, this plate is usually also surrounded by one of their custom license plate frames. Don’t wreck my car!

I have no problem with the manufactor of the car putting their name and logo on it, I like my Civic just fine and think Honda is a good brand. I have in the past stripped off these logos because I prefer a cleaner look to my cars, but often times the sun faded paint still shows the emblems after a few years and painting a whole car just for that reason is a bit silly. I also don’t buy new cars, but my Mother does. The last few she bought I went with her and have always requested that on delivery all stickers, badges, emblems and license plate frames from the dealership are removed. Most dealerships will do this for you if you ask, but they often give a sour face when you request it.

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