Wearing masks in public to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus has quickly become a staple in American life.
Should it be common in automotive advertising, too?
Donning masks is a polarizing issue in some circles, and it appears auto retailing is one of them. Ford has experienced this firsthand.
Matt VanDyke, Ford’s director of U.S. marketing, said some dealers aren’t ready to accept ad content with people wearing masks. Others think it’s important to show mask use.
“We shared with our dealer association groups some new creative that we have developed and literally about a third of the group said, ‘If you show people in the showroom of a Ford dealership and they don’t have a mask on, I can’t or won’t use it,’ ” VanDyke told Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein last week during the Congress Conversations series.
Other dealers argued that if Ford shows people in a showroom with masks on, it will scare their customers and won’t reflect what’s actually happening in their market.
Source news autonews.com, click here to read the full news.
