Ads to go: US drivers ease fuel costs with 'car-wraps'

[T_i_B]

Is this something that you guys come across a lot?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2901024.ece

To some people a car is just a set of wheels, but to an increasing number of Americans - especially those pinched by high petrol prices - it's also a mobile billboard, an opportunity to rake in advertising dollars by touting the virtues of Coca-Cola, Nestlé or Citibank.

Car-wrapping, as the concept is known, has been around for the past five or six years, but with petrol now selling for well north of $3 (£1.50)a gallon in many parts of the United States, and many vehicles remaining obstinately inefficient in their fuel use, it has grown into a full-blown trend.

In cities like Los Angeles or New York, it's not uncommon now to see the latest drama serial from HBO, the prestigious cable television station responsible for The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, being advertised on people's private cars. Quite what gets advertised on which vehicles depends on the habit of the individual driver and the demographic the advertiser is trying to reach.

The leading pioneer of car-wrapping, an LA-based firm called FreeCar Media, interviews each would-be car-wrap volunteer. A suburban "soccer mom" who ferries her children to school and sports games might be induced to advertise laundry detergent, say. Sometimes FreeCar Media will install a GPS tracking device on the advertiser's car. Occasionally it will supply the vehicle for the advertising campaign (a hearse for Six Feet Under, say). More often it will fork out several hundred dollars a month in exchange for the bodywork-rental rights.

[JeffR]

1. Answer #26704783 for the question:

Why do (fill-in-the-blank) hate America?

[Journeyman]

2. Hardly a new idea. . .

"Bug Boards" were popular in LA in the '70s . . . Volkswagens painted with advertising (usually for cigarettes), then repainted whatever color the driver wanted when the contract expired.

The technology is better these days -- there are great "stickers" that can be applied, then removed, making the ad itself something that can be paid for alone, no need to re-do the car when finished -- but the idea is but a retread from an earlier age.

As Solomon said, "There's nothing new under the sun."

[entanglement]

3. And the ad cos will recover the costs from consumers

So the guy driving the 8 mpg behemoth gets his fuel bill partly subsidized by Coke drinkers ;)