This cruiser brought to you by...Ads on Patrol cars

[Guest guest]

This article was in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today... I remember we

talked about it before..

Toni Wyman, ((temporarily not a CTO) and Tactical Dispatcher)

Gwinnett County Police, GA (just N of HotLanta)

Lawrenceville, GA

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This cruiser brought to you by...

By <A HREF= " mailto:lstafford@... " >LEON STAFFORD </A>

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Police cruisers with the ad-heavy look of a NASCAR racer could be in the

future for several South Georgia communities.

With budgets too tight to replace worn, high-mileage cars, police chiefs in

four Georgia towns are considering an offer from Charlotte-based Government

Acquisitions: free cruisers for three years if the department can live with

advertising of the company's choice on the cars' hoods, trunks and sides.

Each of the interested communities -- Lakeland, Alapaha, Ivey and Nashville

-- has fewer than 10,000 residents.

" I figured I'd try it to see how it works, " said Jerry Lipsey, chief of the

12-officer Nashville Police Department, which has applied for seven cars. " We

are a small department. It is hard to get our cars up to the number that we

need. "

The Government Acquisitions deal is another example of new places advertising

is showing up as corporations look for ways to better position their brands

and to stand out among the flurry of advertisements, marketers say. Other new

frontiers include ads in the virtual world of video games, on the necks of

parking meters, and on monitors in public restrooms, in elevators and at

ATMs.

What makes this offer unique, marketers said, is that it further moves the

line of how much sponsorship government will accept to pay the bills.

In the public arena, ads already cover buses and the walls of subway cars and

tunnels, corporations have slapped their names on every sports arena

imaginable, and business sponsorship of events now are the norm.

" To me a police car needs to be visible as a police car, " said Jim Nelems,

president of the Marketing Workshop. " You put an ad on it, and it looks like

a taxi. "

Government Acquisitions does not have cars ready to deliver and is still in

negotiations with advertisers, said Ken , president of the company. He

declined to name any of the advertisers, but said they would not promote

alcohol, tobacco, firearms or gaming and could show up on firetrucks,

motorcycles, ambulances and vans.

Nearly 100 small communities throughout the country are in talks with

Government Acquisitions, according to the company. But for the concept to

take off nationally, it will have to be adopted by large cities, said Mark

DiMassimo, president of DiMassimo Brand Marketing in New York. That is where

corporations will really see a return on their investment.

" I wouldn't be surprised to see this kind of sponsorship grow faster in large

cities, " said DiMassimo, whose firm has put ads on grocery store items in a

number of cities, including Atlanta.

However, there is little guarantee consumers will pay any more attention to

advertising on police cruisers than they do on buses or billboards. Because

advertising is virtually everywhere, he said most consumers accept messages

as part of the landscape and don't look at them, a reaction he calls

" emotional distancing. "

" People make themselves hard to reach, because they are barraged, " he said.

" It's a defense mechanism. "

Nelems said he would feel more comfortable with the Government Acquisitions

concept if there were research to show its effectiveness. He said ideas like

this have been floated, but they're only worth pursuing if there is proof --

say, over six months -- that they improve brand recognition.

said his company was formed less than a year ago to answer President

Bush's call for improvements to homeland security. He would not give out

other details about the company, including names of investors or how much

money he has raised to get the business off the ground.

He said because so many municipalities are hard-pressed for money, especially

with the continued economic slump, his idea was to partner advertisers with

law enforcement so that departments would have the proper equipment to

protect residents.

But Commercial Alert, an Oregon-based group focused on reducing commercial

advertising, especially to children, mailed letters to 100 advertisers asking

them not to support Government Acquisitions.

Commercial Alert, affiliated with consumer rights advocate Ralph Nadar, said

the company is exploiting law enforcement's economic vulnerability.

" Does anyone really think it is going to increase respect for law, to have

police men and women in their cars hawking cola and fries? " Commercial Alert

said in the October letter.

Lipsey said he hopes to get the seven cruisers so that he can provide a car

for each of his officers. Now they have to share, which means the vehicles

are on the road 24 hours a day. A few of the vehicles are 1995 models with

165,000 miles on them.

" I want enough to fill the quota of my officers, " he said.

And while he is open to the idea of advertising on the cars, Lipsey said he

does have concerns.

" I'm OK as long as it's not elaborate, " he said. " I'm after a conservative

ad. "