You’ve seen them all around town. Throw-away ad signs planted in grassy medians. Commercial trucks with no payload but a Mortgage Company’s 30 foot billboard. Sign twirlers hawking furniture on the corner of major intersections. Some businesses in Santa Clarita have made our town the king of tacky advertising. But these excesses pale in comparison to some soulless local businesses that employ billboard car caravans and display an astounding disregard, contempt even, for traffic, the environment, the energy crisis and quality of life in the SCV.
At the risk of sounding like an extremist liberal (I’m not), I can’t imagine a more wasteful, irresponsible and contemptible way to advertise your business than to employ four separate private cars to drive aroudn town for hours with these billboards on their roofs. At least two local furniture companies do this regularly on weekends and, increasingly, weekdays. And don’t let the billboard fool you: these firms have been going out of business for months.
It’s as if these businesses are living in a bubble and have ignored the last eight years of history. Are we not in an energy crisis which has forced gas prices north of $3 a gallon? Aren’t all our national leaders -Republican and Democratic- telling us that a major priority for this nation is to wean us off foreign oil?
Nuts to that! these businesses seem to say as they send four drivers in four separate cars to spam our streets.
Even if you don’t believe man has caused global warming, there’s something to be said for the non-partisan issue of reducing/eliminating unncessary car trips and thereby reducing pollution. These caravans are essentially four unncessary car trips around city streets, pumping CO2 and pollution into our air.
Then there’s the issue of traffic on city streets, which is routinely the number one local complaint. In the grand scheme of things, four cars won’t make or break a traffic jam, but these cars do impact “situational awareness” when you’re near them, and they clog left turn lanes. Again, completely uncessary vehicle trips.
Finally, it’s just plain tacky and cheap. I’m sure these business owners have run the numbers and compared the cost between traditional billboard ads vs this tacky method and found that mobile caravans are still cheaper, despite gas prices. But what’s that say about them that they think this type of advertising is so cost-effective that it will sucker you into showing up at their show room? They think you’re too stupid to think of the other costs outlined above.
I lied earlier. I guess I can imagine an even more loathsome way to advertise your business. Why stop with car caravans? If these businesses truly think that little of the SCV’s air quality and traffic issues and quality of life, then morally, they’ve got license to go even further. They could air-drop flyers and ad banners on the SCV for instance. Dye the now-flowing Santa Clara river with their corporate colors. Start a literal fire-sale and burn some furniture then sell the rest to firemen and gawkers.
I get that we live in a consumer society and that advertising drives business which drives employment which drives the economy, but that’s not a license for such contemptible ads. I guess I’m just surprised that some local businesses have so little pride in their community.