We’ve had a great response to our Survey on the status of dealer license plate frame advertising. It was a lot of work to put the survey together, collect the data and then crunch the numbers but it was worth it. The impetus behind the survey was the apparent disregard the majority of car owners had for the dealer license plate holders which were placed on their cars, mostly without their knowledge. Any one we spoke with agreed with us that it was not right and that the offending advertising should be removed but when we ran the numbers 63% of the cars out there still had dealer license plate frames on their cars. All of these cars had the dealers name on the license plate frame and many also had their phone number and website too. Talk about pushing the boundaries of boldness let alone good taste.
So how does this happen? Why does everyone we speak with agree that their car should not have dealer license plate frame advertising on them but they still do? What is it about human behaviour that makes this happen? Maybe another study is needed however we suspect it is a combination of the overwhelming prevalence of the license plate frame advertising making it seem “normal” and people not understanding it only takes 5 to 10 minutes to remove the plate frame and replace it with something aesthetically pleasing.
Regardless we have received many compliments for pushing this into the open. It’s been an enlightening experience for people to actually look at their car and see the advertising the dealers have on their license plates. We scoured the web and there are only a few other people even bringing this issue up. Hopefully our efforts inspire others to take up the cause so to speak and we can rid the world of dealer advertising on our license plate holders. Get the message out there – no dealer advertising on our cars!