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To Serve, Protect...

16 Jan 2003 by Scott Upton

… And advertise? NASCAR: coming to a police department near you.

20 comments so far (Post a Comment)

16 Jan 2003 | snarkbait said...

I am interested! Where can I buy more police?

16 Jan 2003 | SU said...

FYI: This is the website for the conceptual artist who put together the cop car mockup.

16 Jan 2003 | snarkbait said...

Dare I say he is the #24 car of web design?

16 Jan 2003 | paul said...

as if getting busted isn't embarrassing enough...it'd be possible for you to get busted then have to ride all the way back to the station in a police car sponsored by tampons or condoms or hemoriod cream. woo!

16 Jan 2003 | ~bc said...

Thought this was pretty tasteless when I first saw it a whole back. It's no better now. In related note, Richard Petty would never drive a car that sported alcohol advertising.

17 Jan 2003 | Don Schenck said...

Why don't they paint advertisements on the road at intersections?

17 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

Or tattoo advertisements on the foreheads of criminals.

17 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

Do you get special treatment if you paid for those advertisements?

17 Jan 2003 | John said...

The site is pretty tacky, but this guy didn't design it. A company called iVaxo is linked at the site developer.

17 Jan 2003 | Don Schenck said...

I have a GREAT IDEA!

Why could put up these huge signs all over our countrysides ... signs to block the view and scar the landscape ... we could sell advertising on them ... and call them ... hmmmm ... "billboards"! Yeah!

Naaaa ... no one would put up with such an idea.

17 Jan 2003 | Don Schenck said...

Correction: "WE could put up ..."

17 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

How about we let politicians walk around with advertisments. They're already getting money from big corporations. Having badges of the sponsoring corporations on their suits will make it easier to see on which team they are.

17 Jan 2003 | Dave said...

p8 - great idea! I love it.

This has to be about the silliest thing I have ever seen. I can't figure out if I should laugh or be deeply offended.

There are so many reasons why public services are strapped for cash, and this *fixes* none of them. Here's the thing with public sector spending. Once you have money, you can not imagine not having it. I work for a large school district in very difficult financial times. (I work as a network admin) My dept can not imagine having budget cuts & not buying new servers every 6 months. Its an uproar around here... groan.

I guess I'm deeply offended.

17 Jan 2003 | Hagbard Celine said...

Not to change the subject, but what happened to the "open links in new window" option?

17 Jan 2003 | chugger said...

Is the performics corporate site supposed to jump like that when you click on the nav? Kinda weird.

18 Jan 2003 | Jim said...

I don't see this as being any different than advertising on the sides of public busses. While I agree that there's something "wrong" about this police car idea, why is there no outrage that our taxpayer-funded city busses have advertising plastered on their sides rather than public art?

20 Jan 2003 | Urbanchords said...

Would you either have the ad police car or pay more in taxes to pay for the police? They don't come for free.

20 Jan 2003 | p8 said...

Well, ads aren't free. So someone (as in you the customer) is paying for them.

Let's say I had a big company that paid for these ads. If my office got hit by burglars I would try to put pressure on the police department to get extra surveillance. So you might be paying the same amount but the police won't be surveilling your neighbourhood.

And isn't Justice supposed to be impartial?
What's next judges wearing "Eat at Joe's" signs?
Like Don would say:
"And WHEEEEEE ... down the slippery slope we slide, faster and faster"

20 Jan 2003 | Steve said...

I'd say advertising on police cars is different than advertising on buses because of the impressions it creates. It's difficult to conceive of companies getting preferential treatment from the transit agency, and even if they did (say, maybe, increased bus service to their factory) it probably has a public benefit.

But with public safety, you don't want to even create the impression that police might treat someone differently because they're advertising. Say the CEO gets pulled over for driving erractically. Are the cops going to just bring him home instead of arresting him for DUI just because his ads paid for that new cruiser the responding officer is driving? Are the company's offices going to get a little extra attention with increased patrols? Even if the cops didn't do such things, the impression would exist that they do. And that's not a percpetion you want when it comes to public safety.

22 Jan 2003 | Don Schenck said...

I say we put cigarette ads on police cruises!

(joking)

It's not necessary to raise taxes to support the police. We just need to eliminate other stuff.

Public should be public and never private. I don't even like ads on buses.

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