A: A bunch of advertisements for car dealerships.
One of the good things about Michigan getting rid of the old Lake Superior Blue license plates last year is that along with discarding those, many car owners also ditched the ugly license brackets installed by car dealerships that are nothing more than just free advertising for themselves.
My distaste for any and all ads from a dealership started in the 70's from my grandfather who refused to let a Warren-based Ford Dealer place it's usual sticker on his new car. Something on the order of, "It's my damn car and you will not put something on there I don't like". The practice got worse with a Chevy dealer in Sterling Heights that tried to stick very large plaque-like rectangles on every car that rolled of their lot. My parents took the lead from my grandfather and refused to take delivery of one car until that thing was removed -- as had been requested during the sales process.
Most dealerships took it from there and started doing the plate brackets. They are easier to install, don't damage a car's finish, but still give the dealership the potential to reach a lot of eyeballs. They are also easy to remove, but for some reason, few ever do. I'm not sure why we allow these dealerships to use our cars as rolling billboards for them, especially considering how much money is involved in advertising using other mediums. And how much money we pay for cars!
In fact, the next time we are buying a new car, I'm going to draw up an advertising contract if they want to use our vehicle to promote their dealership. I'm thinking that by charging, say 25 cents per mile plus a monthly flat rate of $150 or so ($5/day), that should be pretty fair. After all, it's a win-win situation, right? They get cheap advertising and I get to save on car payments.
Or, as my grandfather would have said, they can just shove their license plate brackets where the sun don't shine.
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