Another Reason Not to Like Car Dealers

“Yes, you can use the word free in your advertising,” writes Jim Boldebook in Dealer Magazine. “No, you probably can’t use it with reference to the sale of a car, as in free options or extras as most states have now ruled there is no such thing as free anything in a car deal, but you can use the word free in a number of ways to capture the attention of your intended audience.” Oh, do tell. “The word free can be used in copy such as ‘Set yourself free from high payments with our lower lease rates.’ Or, ‘Free yourself from maintenance worries with our all inclusive maintenance program included on most of our new models.’ You can even use the word free in disassociating it’s use in your ad copy, such as: ‘While we are not allowed to say this GPS system is free, we can you say won’t pay one penny extra for it with the purchase of any new X or Y model.'” And that’s why Jim’s agency, Creative Broadcast Concepts, gets the big bucks. If you’ve already taken your blood pressure meds, Boldebook provides his dealer readers– and you!– with a specific example after the jump.

“One of the most successful free campaigns I ever witnessed in the retail automobile business was a project conducted by a Lincoln Mercury Dealers Association in a Midwestern market in the late ‘80s. For six weeks the LMDA advertised free windshield wiper inserts to customers of the area dealers as part of a tie-in to promote the lifetime warranty on service work (long since discontinued). The dealers were just amazed at the number of customers this free promotion brought through the doors of the dealership. Even more amazingly, the average repair order for the free inserts was $60. What a great use of LMDA money. What impressive proof of the power of free.”

Well, it’s impressive proof of something. Why do I suddenly feel unclean?