CENTURIES OF ROUGH NOTES

Rough Notes, Apr 2004

Rough Notes magazine, May 1921

ROUGH NOTES.

EFFECTIVE AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE PUBLICITY STUNTS

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HERE in Detroit, for violations such as over-time parking, zone parking and such irregularities, the automobile owner is obliged to pay an impounding fee for each violation. The traffic officer attaches to the steering wheel of the car owner, a tag stating the violation and directing that the impounding fee be paid. The result of this is that naturally everyone pays pretty close attention to such a tag when it is found attached to their steering wheel.

The idea occurred to us that if we would get out a card the same color and size as the traffic department's notice and during the Auto Show have ... he had violated a traffic ordinance and had to pay another fee.

During the same period we also had a five-ton Packard truck on which we placed a Ford touring car that had been very badly burned and which had our sign on it, calling attention to the damage. This truck was on the street from 7:30 a. m. to 9 p. m., during the entire week, driven all over the downtown thoroughfares and parked opposite the Auto Show in the afternoon between two and five o'clock and seven and nine o'clock in the evening. This caused a great deal of comment and we have heard from it from many sources.

Of course it is pretty hard to deter