Would You Buy Advertising from the DMV?

Assuming that California’s new proposal for electronic license plates goes through–license plates that can display advertising–here’s a question: would you buy advertising from the DMV?

No, seriously. Putting aside the myriad of concerns about electronic license plates in general, would you buy advertising from the DMV if you could? Would it be as easy as setting up a Google AdWords buy, or would it require you to make an appointment at the friendly DMV counter? And, once you placed your ads, how easy would it be to download the metrics? Could you do it as a CSV, or would you have to go into an office to have someone look it up on their Windows 95-era screen?

And–what would you advertise? Local bars seem a gimme, but, well, people are driving. And that’s drinking. Ads for California’s pie-in-the-sky rapid rail system might not go over so well in rush hour on the 405. Maybe ads for, well, Google Adwords might not be so bad, especially up in Mountain View.

In case you haven’t realized, I think California’s electronic license plates are a monumentally idiotic idea. Let’s leave aside the huge expenditures necessary to make it happen. Anyone with half a brain in their head would immediately have this conversation with the state:

You: “Well, hell, that’s gonna be distracting! Going down the freeway and seeing a thousand blinking, screaming ads all flashing at you? How will that work?”

“No problem,” California confidently says. “They’ll only display when the car hasn’t moved for more than four seconds.”

You try again: “What happens when the inevitable 14-year-old hacks the system and puts pictures of stuff you don’t want to see on every license plate?”

“Notgonnahappen,” California says. “We’ve designed the system with a bazillion gigabit security system, not hackable for . . . oh wait, it’s been hacked. Erghh, look at that.”

And then you say: “Hey California, my car battery’s dead from your ads. I’m gonna sue!”

“Well, of course there will be a failsafe system rendering this impossible, designed by NASA scientists . . . oh wait, you mean the real world is different than a lab?” California says. “You mean some people have cars they don’t drive for days at a time? Ah, wait . . .”

And then, you ask the real question: ”If you’re advertising on my car, where’s my cut? When I choose to let Google put ads on my blog, I get money.”

And that’s the point that California missed. Google works because it’s voluntary, and because there’s an incentive to use it.

Ads on license plates . . . uh, not so much.

Posted by June 27th, 2010 | by Jason | Permalink