Gorillas & Cars
Joe Siegler
Something I’ve always wondered is why car companies feel compelled to use inflatable something or other to get attention. I mean, does anyone ever actually see one of these things and go “Oh. I wasn’t thinking about buying a car, but with this stupid inflatable here, I think I’ll pull in and take a look”. I mean REALLY.
WHY????
Do car dealerships really think people are THAT stupid? I know car dealerships generally screw people over, but is it that bad? And it’s not like it’s just one of them. It’s most of them! All of the car dealerships in my area that I can recall have used one at some time or another. I’m sure there’s one or two that haven’t, but it seems like all of them.
And why gorillas? Most of them are gorillas? Is there some company who makes inflatable gorillas that has a hold on the executives at car dealerships?
If anything, an inflatable gorilla means I will NEVER buy a car there. It’s stupid looking, and to me it says that the dealership doesn’t respect their customers by doing something so stupid.
If there’s anyone who reads this that works at a car dealership, please tell me why giant inflatable gorillas are used at the front doors of car dealerships, please. Educate me.
Additionally, I want to know why an inflatable caveman is an enticement to buy furniture. I took this picture as I passed it on LBJ Freeway in Mesquite, TX. Since this was FACING THE HIGHWAY, what did they think? Oh, I saw a plastic inflatable caveman, and I was going somewhere already, but I’ll stop and buy some furniture.
I mean, WHAT THE HELL?
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Here’s an even worse one that the Honda dealership near me uses: a giant inflatable STOP SIGN. Facing the freeway. No, sorry, but a big honking red thing saying STOP does not make me want to buy a car, although the color red does tend to make me feel the instinct to slam on the brakes while I’m driving (like if there are brakelights in front of me), so all it really does is piss me off more since I got kind of uneasy seeing the thing. And the thing is FACING THE FREEWAY, from which there is no quick way to get to the dealership in the first place! So if someone’s driving down it, sees a big red stop sign and instintively hits the brakes (normally, a pretty good instinct for drivers to have, right?), can he hold the dealership liable?
I’ve got a ‘reason’ that makes sense for putting up the giant gorilla: kids. My 2-year-old knows the entire neighborhood around a vacuum dealer where her grandparents live, in Pocatello, ID. Every time we get near it, she starts chanting and whining about the ‘mon-ey’ (monkey). Once she sees the ugly purple ape, she’s happy. This lost a lot of its charm late one Sunday evening, when they’d deflated the ape and she had to deal with not seeing it.
So, have I noticed the dealer more for it? Yeah. Would I buy something there? Maybe. Then again, I have this rule about *never* buying from anyone that profits from spam, and I’d rate giant purple monkeys by the road at half as bad…
Oh, and I dropped by for the spreadsheet (I’m in a ‘survival’ league, and want to plan how I’m going to try to get thru 17 weeks of picking a different winner each week), and saw this story.
I handle marketing for six used car dealerships. We have 3 of those “rediculous Giant Monkeys”. To tell the truth, before I was involved in marketing I had the same questions you do, about what the giant ape could possible do for the car dealership. So heres the reason. Name recognition. No. We don’t think your going to see a monkey and decide you want to buy a car there because of it. We do want it to grab your attention. Even if you don’t come in today. That picture in your mind, believe it or not, will stick in your mind. The location, the company logo & that we sell cars is theoretically, stampped in your mind for a time when you are in the market to by a car. So, I hope that helps clear things up for you.
I do Internet marketing for sales, in a dealership in Everett Washington! and as cheesy as those huge Inflatable things are, they sell cars, just like a lot full of balloons on every car sells cars, its flashy, its bright, its makes you look at it, o wait its called advertisement! whether you look at it and say o thats stupid, or say to yourself wow thats funny, it makes you look at the dealership, that grey building that typically blends in with others from the freeway all of the sudden stands out, and thats exatly what those large colorful inflatables are supposed to do! and to prove that they worked you took those pictures made a big old stink about them and then posted it on the internet and by doing so you gave that ford dealership FREE Advertisment, man!!! your right we are just a bunch of dumb Gorilla’s, and you listened to us… OOOOO AAAAA OOOOO AAGGHHH!
Gorillas and other cheesy outdoor attention-getters are stupid and unsophisticated on purpose. The dealer making a fool of himself on TV is acting an idiot on purpose. The horrible newspaper ads are terrible on purpose. And that purpose? To convince you the dealer is a boob. A clown. A rube. To get you thinking you might be a little smarter than a guy who puts an inflatable dinosaur on his roof. Or yells and waves his arms around in his tv commercials. It’s to get you thinking you couldn’t possibly be outsmarted by this complete nitwit. And you go in to the dealership, feeling confident in your smarts and negotiating skills, and that gorilla suit wearing, dirty-tie, polyester pants-wearing jester takes you to the cleaners. And you don’t even know it.