I just read this article in Wired about AdverCar, a company that will pay you to put ads on your car. I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering why it's taken so long for this to happen. I would have thought that in trying to think up new things to put ads on, cars would have come before bananas, gas pumps, and public restroom cubicle doors. Unfortunately it's not nearly enough to pay for the car,but does help with gas money.
I was discussing this with someone years ago, and they pointed out (prophetically, apparently) that the weakness in the plan is the location. The advertisers will want to know where you drive, so that they can target ads and figure out how much it's worth spending on you. And that leads to the problem that sinks a lot of ad-sustained businesses: anyone poor/cheap enough to want to sign up for this service is probably not worth advertising to. If you're desperate enough to drive around in a car with "I'm lovin' it" across the hood, you probably don't have much disposable income, and probably don't live around anyone else who does, either.
Really, the only way to make advertising on cars work is if you syncronized it with Nascar. It sounds stupid to drive a car covered with M&M's characters on it, but if Kyle Busch does it first, that makes it okay.
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