Misleading Advertising

Advertising is an interesting thing. I did a lot of research and writing about advertising to kids while studying child development at Lipscomb. An advertiser's goal is usually to sell a feeling or impression. The message can be subtle or overt.

I mentioned a few days ago about the television ad that has been running constantly of late promoting the new Victory Nissan West and Victory Nissan South. Victory Nissan West was formerly Howerton Nissan in Dickson. And the ad mentions that. It yells it, actually.

This sale was transacted a year ago. The ad implies that Victory Nissan has just acquired Howerton Nissan and is having to liquidate Howerton Nissan's (and Harts Chapel Nissan's) inventory at "pennies on the dollar!" That is absolutely false.

The ad also leaves an impression that the former dealerships went out of business (possibly unsuccessful?) and were taken over, although it never directly states such. I realize how effectively that perception has been communicated only because we've gotten phone calls and emails asking, "What happened???"

What happened was my husband and his partner bought a little Nissan dealership in Dickson that wasn't doing a lot of business. My husband went there nearly every day and turned it into a very successful franchise in less than one year. He had a good name in the community and people there liked dealing with him. Victory Nissan was eager to buy this successful little store and pursued the sale. John and his partner weren't completely sure they even wanted to sell. But the potential buyer made such an attractive offer, they accepted.

I can only speculate as to why Victory Nissan is trying to sell the idea that they just acquired these two businesses and use the names of the former owners in their promotion. My opinion is that they are trying to capitalize somewhat on the good names and reputations of these previous owners. I don't think either "new" dealership is doing the same volume of business that it was prior to the change in ownership. However, that is at least partly due to the current economic situation, which affects everybody to some degree. Business will pick up eventually.

My point in writing this is just to show how misleading an ad can be. And the advertiser doesn't always care about integrity. When the ad says that "Howerton Nissan is sold and closed forever" they can't really make that claim honestly. Howerton is John's name and it belongs to him. He did not give permission to have his name used in their advertising. He called the agency and they will not return his call. This demonstrates how little they care about possibly tarnishing someone else's name and reputation in their attempt to sell cars.

There very well could be another Howerton Nissan at some point in the future. That's why an ad like this is potentially damaging. I'm sure this ad will be long forgotten by that hypothetical time, if it ever comes. So it's not a major concern. It doesn't seem to bother John that much, except for the fact that he pictures the ad company exec tossing his phone message in the trash and saying, "So he doesn't like it. What can he do about it?" --with not even the courtesy of a returned phone call.

Well, maybe somebody who Googles Victory Nissan will find my little blog and know the truth. Or maybe not. But I feel better for having gotten it off my chest anyway.