Advertisers have displayed their messages nearly everywhere — from billboards to zeppelins and t-shirts to tattoos. California, the home of tech innovators such as Google and Apple, might offer a new medium to advertise: electronic license plates. It is California’s latest effort to create jobs and fix its $19 b budget deficit. The idea might just be a win-win for California and its commuters.
Digital advertising on electronic license plates might sound extremely distracting and therefore highly dangerous. However, advertisements will only be displayed when the car is stopped for more than a few seconds (e.g. rush-hour traffic). All other times the digital plate will display the license number.
How can consumers benefit from more marketing, particularly on license plates? The end-goal of advertising is to entertain and captivate its audience. Think: while waiting on the gridlocked Golden Gate bridge, wouldn’t it be great to have a laugh at the Geico’s cavemen or watch a preview from Toy Story 3 (or 4 by the time the service is available to the public)?
“Surely anyone would rather look at a license plate adorned with ‘Got Milk’ rather than ’5XYJ204,’” writes CNET. Indeed, a small TV screen mounted to the bumper of the car in front of you could provide a much-needed break from the tedium that is stop-and-go traffic.
Taking it a step further, the e-license plates could offer QR codes for drivers to receive coupons on their smartphone devices. Or the plates could have a location-based system to trigger local advertising. So you might see an e-license advert for Milk Boy coffee shop, obtain a coupon via your smartphone device, and then actually pass Milk Boy. If you’re not running late, why not use your new coupon for 20 percent off a mocha frappucino?
To some, snapping pictures with your smartphone and location-enabled advertising is not only dangerous but creepy. Let’s deal with the dangerous element first. All e-license advertising is done during times when the car is stopped in traffic. If you’re behind the stopped car viewing the advert, how can you, behind this immobile car, get into an accident?
Secondly, though the developer of the e-license plates (Smart Plates) has not considered location-based advertising, the idea could have some legs. Car owners could opt-out of the GPS option, but as location-based social networks (think FourSquare and Loopt) increase in popularity, consumers are not as concerned with privacy as they might have been in the pre-smartphone world.
Given the perceived distraction and privacy hurdles e-license plates need to overcome, could it be a viable idea? California is in the nascent stages of development and the state is unsure of exactly the amount of revenue it will generate and the number of jobs it will create. For the state known for its innovation, California is certainly pushing its thinking on how to get out of its crippling deficit. And every idea is on the table, including e-license advertising.
Image by Justin Tunney from Stock.Xchng
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This is a rotten idea. Let me ask where the electricity is going to come from to power these plates? If it comes from the owner’s car then is the owner going to be compensated?
I don’t care how little gas it ends up using. Even one gram a year is too much as it is MINE and not the governments!
I do not even allow dealerships to put their logos on my new cars. That is advertising that they must pay me for if they wish to use MY car as their ad space.
What is my compensation from the government for allowing ads to be placed on my car? I certainly will not allow them to use that space for free.
This proposal is crazy!
1) The state has NO right whatsoever to advertise anything on MY personal motor vehicle.
2)Distractions -I never, ever, put bumper stickers or political stickers on my vehicles. My only exception to that was that I once applied a sticker, on my rear tailgate glass, that read ” F*ck World Peace. Visualize using your turn signal!” I got rear ended, and the lady claimed she ran in to me because she was laughing so hard at the sticker.
An electronic plate will create more distractions to vehicle drivers. Motorists need to be focused on driving, even when the vehicle is sitting still. Especially while sitting in stop-and-go traffic. I can hear the screetching tires and crunching noise now as some distracted goober, watching a Toy Story 4 trailer on a plate in the next lane over, slams into the back of my car on the 405. Gawking at some ad on another vehicle’s license plate is just MORE distraction. We need LESS.
3) What happens when someone gets angry because they dislike a product or company that is being advertised on my vehicle? Road rage? Freeway shooting? Vandalism? Has anyone thought this through?
4) Hacking. If you put an electronic plate on a motor vehicle, it will only be a matter of days before it is hacked, and creative types will then be putting their own messages on the plates. Just what we need, some yahoo putting “F*** You” on his license plate. Come on. If the iPhone can be hacked and jailbroken within 72 hours of it’s release, then how many minutes do you think it will take to hack electronic plates? As funny as that could potentially be, it goes back toy yet another distraction.
Between the violation of my property, and the potential for more distractions, how can any sane person think this is a good thing?