The Perils of Car-Based Advertising

It’s not unusual to almost get run off the road while driving in San Francisco. What is unusual is to almost get run off the road by a car with an advertising wrap on it. Even more unusual was what I spotted on the side of the heavily-tinted car, its driver clearly yelling at me to get out of his way: A vehicle wrap for babysitting service urbansitter.

Now that’s a little interesting. I’m sure no one from urbansitter was behind the wheel, nor was the driver likely one of the service’s babysitters… and yet, I’m still a little put off. Would I trust my children to a company that employs reckless drivers to carry its advertising message? As a parent of two, I’m suddenly not sure how I feel about the company’s brand based on this one, isolated incident.

Just a cautionary tale should your business find itself considering vehicle wraps to carry its marketing message. In the case of urbansitter, which has to get across how extremely safe its service is, maybe it’s better to stick with promotional pencils.

Then again… I definitely saw your ad!

Update 6/4/2013 – Urbansitter and the company that provides its car ad services, AdverCar, have both followed up with me and taken great pains to address this situation. I’m really impressed by their response.

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Christopher Null

Christopher Null is a veteran technology journalist and the owner of Null Media, a custom blogging company.