From Chapter Eight:

How Dealer Advertising Works
. . . Offering What You Probably Don’t Want and Can’t Get Anyway

“Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence
long enough to get money from it.”
 
—Stephen Leacock
Economist & Writer (1869–1944)
 
"When Jack and Jill first arrived at the showroom, they were completely unaware of their upside-down issue, never mind what created the condition. They were simply armed with an ad that made certain claims; namely a $269 payment offer. Consumers such as the Hills are rarely ever able to obtain advertising offers, primarily due to negative equity and the detrimental impact it has on loan approvals. This is another of the industry’s big problems: attracting customers to the showroom with enticing ads and then explaining without angering them, why they are ineligible for the offer.
 
"More than 3,000 advertising messages inundate the average American in any given day. 12 13 Everybody is looking for the consumer’s time, attention, and money. The auto industry is no different. Car dealers spend $7.7 billion on advertising annually. Meaning,each dealership location one passes on the road, spends $365,000 on advertising every year. Every time someone buys a new vehicle from a car dealer in America today, $550 is pumped directly back into the media. 14 Automakers spend millions more researching where consumers will be, when they will be there, and whatever attention-grabbing mechanism might work. After all, their commercial is just one among the other 2,999 messages Americans endure daily.
 
"Advertising gives the industry a frequent chance to vie for customer business in small thirty and sixty-second bites. A half-minute television spot must excite the viewer and put the product within his budget. This strategy is employed by most franchised brands and their dealers, with the exception of perhaps Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover. Their advertising is more of an exclusive message. This means they exclude a great many household budgets, which of course, makes the brand more valuable to those consumers who can afford their premium price! But most other manufacturers and their dealers are challenged with making their best financial offer while they have the viewer’s attention. This leaves little time to provide all the details of the offer no one ever reads or really cares about anyway—certainly not while watching Jeopardy reruns. The ad is designed to tell the best truth about what is being pitched and leave the legalities to the formal contracts..."