Don’t touch my car
Does it make anyone else CRAZY when you walk up to your car* in a parking lot and find some random flier under the windshield wiper?
This drives me absolutely mad, but I’ve talked to a few people who it doesn’t seem to bother at all. Take my crazy mother for example. She actually said, “I like it when people put fliers on my car. It makes me feel special.” But then after I argued with her for a bit about it she said it would upset her if she had a new car like me (My mom is still driving some car she won in the 80s).
And someone else told me it doesn’t bother them – they just take it off and put it on the car next to theirs, hoping they will recycle it. (Who said this to me?! Please reveal yourself! I cannot remember!)
I think it bothers me so much because it is a HUGE waste of paper, and results in a lot of littering. AND, I am very VERY unlikely to use the services of someone if their method of advertisement is a flier on my CAR.
And, I don’t like the idea of anyone touching my car. The lot I park my car in to ride the train is in a pretty shady area. My old car got keyed there, and last year I arrived to find someone’s glass busted out of their car. I made sure to have special vandalism insurance on my new car. I am just waiting for the day I walk out to it and find something wrong with it.
Anyway, if there is someone out there who is not annoyed by finding fliers under their car windshield wiper, please feel free to argue with me! Or agree if it makes you crazy too!
*Or your theoretical car, if you don’t have one.
Themocracy
I hate fliers on my car too!
I just get irritated about it because what the heck am I supposed to do with it? I usually just throw it in my car and then my car looks like a trash heap after awhile. I actually get more irritated at the people who rubberband fliers to my front door or my front porch stair railings. Get off my porch!! I agree, it’s SUCH a huge waste of paper. My mom suggested I collect all the fliers I find on my porch for a month and then go before the village council and make an argument for banning the practice in the name of “going green.”
I guess it doesn’t annoy me that they touched my car, but I definitely don’t appreciate the flyers, either. I never respond to the ads…ever!
Every time I see this happen, I want to find the person and shove the flyer down their throat. But, mysteriously, they’re never there. Where do they go?
A few times, I’ve not seen the fliers (esp. if they’re under the passenger wiper) and I’ll drive home with it there. I usually see it halfway home and am anxious it’ll fly off while I’m driving. I don’t want to be the one littering!
The touching doesn’t bother me, but I generally would rather not have the flyer.
The waste of paper doesn’t bother me because it is my understanding that paper only uses renewable resources. I’m not sure about the ink, though….
When I had a car, this annoyed me. I never had an actual brand NEW car, so I wasn’t too fussy about people touching my car, but I did have the same dilemma as Erin about what to do with the flyers. I didn’t want to throw them on the ground–that’s littering. But if I kept them in my car, it was littering my car. I agree that it is a pretty stupid form of advertising.
Your mom WON a car?!? Awesome. I hate the idea of anyone touching ANY of my stuff—uck.
As particular as I am about a lot of things, flyers on my car have never bothered me. Been a long time since I’ve gotten one and I’ve never owned a new car though.
I just chuck ’em in the footwell and recycle ’em later. Or if I didn’t notice before I got in, I’d run my wipers & grab it through the side window when it swung over… which I found kinda fun.
If it had rained on them, it’s a drag to deal with the sog.
I agree, I don’t like people to touch/get any where near my car. I have absolute disdain for people that ding other people’s cars when they open their doors to fast…makes me angry just thinking about it. I never thought about what a waste of paper it is, but you’re right all those fliers probably go right into the garbage! What a huge eco-mess!
I’m with Claire on this.
I’ll just add that the last car we bought was a used car (one year old in pretty close to perfect condition). That helped the “no touchy” anxiety, and so does the knowledge that driving a brand-new car off the lot after buying it immediately deducts thousands of dollars from its value. Cars are just cars. Paper is only paper.
It also helps to know the economics: people are generally hired to do this by someone who wants a cheap way to get the word out about their product. I find the people standing on corners with big signs even more annoying than paper on my windshield, or people assaulting my car with cleaning products while stopped at a red light (and then expecting me to pay them! I don’t think so!).
In the end, though, I’m much more likely to get my blood pressure up about sick/dying friends, random work stupidity (like yesterday), chasing down idiotic doctors whose staff couldn’t find their collective ass in the dark with a flashlight, or the dope in front of me doing 30 in the 50 MPH zone.
In my neighborhood, they tape fliers to our garages (in addition to putting fliers under windshield wipers). What I want to know is whether that marketing campaign really works? Is it worth the cost to print up the fliers and pay someone to walk around distributing them? Do these businesses actually gain new customers that way? Based on most people’s reactions to fliers, I’m guessing many people are LESS likely to frequent businesses that do that!
Speaking of littering … I was running yesterday and right in front of me, some old, greasy dirtbag drops a crumpled napkin in the gutter … pretending I didn’t see. I made sure to scoff loudly, give him a nasty look and shake my head. Just imagine my reaction this morning when some guy got out of a cab to take a piss on a wall of a business down the street from me. He, too, got the stink eye.
The touching my car doesn’t bother me, but the litter and waste aspect does bother me. Then I have to deal with recycling it or having it junk up my car. Very annoying!
My favorite is when there is a flier on your windshield and it is raining and you turn on the wiper and then you have paper mush all over your windshield.
I agree (especially if the paper is a parking ticket) but most of the time I take the fliers home to recycle them. I don’t get much on my windshield at home but everyonce in a while I get them at work. I make it a point to not use them if they do this type of marketing. Plus most of the time there are spelling mistakes and it is generally unappealing.
the worst is if after they distribute it in the morning it rains in the afternoon. Fun!
Hm…the idea of someone touching my car doesn’t bother me as much as the litter factor. All this being said, one time my friend saw my car when he was running and used a scrap of paper and a random twig to etch out “HI MICA” and leave it under my windshield wiper. THAT made me feel special.
I think we should just ban paper altogether.
No but seriously, I don’t like fliers on my car. I never actually use them.
Oh, this is definitely annoying. I don’t like anyone touching my car whether it is old or new – there just isn’t a good reason for it. and I like my space. In return, I do not go around touching other people’s cars. I’m fair that way. Fliers on my windshield are super annoying because it is giving me a piece of paper that I didn’t ask for and now have to deal with. The person who said they didn’t mind them and just put them on someone else’s car hoping they would recycle it should just recycle it themselves if it really doesn’t annoy them. Why make it someone else’s problem. THAT annoys me. LOL. 😉 Hi Kilax! Hope you are well!
I absolutely hate it, for the same exact reason you set forth below:
I think it bothers me so much because it is a HUGE waste of paper, and results in a lot of littering. AND, I am very VERY unlikely to use the services of someone if their method of advertisement is a flier on my CAR.
WELL PUT!
Thanks for all of the comments, youre so supportive! I’m back and I’m going to be better about reading and commenting! Youre right I think intuitive eating works for some people, but I dont think that I’m one of those people!
I HATE THOSE FLYERS. Seriously, why do they think it’s ok to touch my car and to litter? I especially hate it when it winds up raining and the dye from the paper bleeds everywhere! It’s a mess!
I just wonder how much return people actually get on those fliers. In college we used to get all these “club night” fliers on our cars since we were in the student parking lot. It make me wonder who actually picks it up and goes “ohhh I should go out to this bar tonight!!” Not me!
you arent allowed to put fliers on cars in my neighborhood, because i live near the beach and they get into the water, which people freak out about.