another way to advertise

By Todd Stadler · Saturday, June 16, 2001 11:59pm

There was a sticky note on my car this morning as I tore off to the concert. It was the same note I've gotten before.

"Please call me about your car 503-XXX-XXXX L.A." Handwritten, on a little green sticky note.

The last time I got this note, I thought someone really wanted to talk to me about my car. Maybe it was the big numbers I stuck on the windows. Or my giant bumper sticker. Lots of people ask about those.

So I called the number. And I was told that "L.A." wasn't there, but I could leave a message. When I told the message-taker about the note, she proceeded to tell me about the windshield-repair service they offer.

Argh. See, my windshield has a crack in it. Apparently, some clever businessperson goes around looking for cracked glass and putting sticky notes on the cars.

Well, that was last time. This time, I called up and asked for "L.A.". It became apparent that there is no one working at this company with those initials. It's just a codename to alert the person taking the call that I'm calling about a sticky note they left.

This time, I left a message with "L.A.", saying that she'd better not leave any more stupid sticky notes on my car because I'm tired of her annoying marketing scheme. The person on the other end thanked me for my input.

Whee! Consumer rage! Like a freakin' adbuster, yo!