By David Siders
Copyright 2007 The Record
The Record
STOCKTON, Calif. — Fire Chief Ron Hittle has a notion to put advertisements on the sides of fire trucks.
His thinking — referred to in an informal planning document at City Hall — is that a hose sponsored by Pepsi or Coca-Cola, for example, could make money.
It’s just a thought, he said. The budget is lean and revenue is scarce.
“I haven’t thought about it enough to know if I really can do it,” he said.
To do it would not be unheard of — the Minneapolis Fire Department placed ads for an anti-smoking organization on rigs in 2004 — but would be unconventional.
And perhaps no place is more conventional than the Fire Department. Beloved are “red fire engines and tiller trucks and funky helmets that don’t really perform all that well in a fire,” Hittle said. “But they look good.”
To squeeze a firefighter into a sandwich board might not, City Councilwoman Susan Eggman said.
But the department’s rank and file would not object, said Capt. Dave Macedo, the union president. And City Manager Gordon Palmer said the idea is at least worth considering. Councilman Clem Lee said that, too.
“In a world where our recourses are always limited, I don’t mind creativity,” he said. On the other hand, Lee said, “If Hustler Magazine wanted to sponsor a fire truck, I’m not sure that, you know, and therein lies the, something we’d have to, that anybody would have to deal with.”
The thought of what the department might have to deal with caused chuckling at the local advertising outfit Andermahr & Co.
“We’ve kind of joked around; it’d be like Aladdin Bail Bonds putting ads on the back of cop cars. Or Rusty’s Barbecue on the back of a fire truck,” owner Tony Mannor said.
Incidentally, the Police Department does not carry advertisements for Aladdin Bail Bonds or any other business on its cars. Chief Wayne Hose said the department has considered but rejected the idea, in part because, “I don’t want my cars to look like NASCAR,” and in part because he does not want people to think the police treat advertisers better than anyone else.
Hittle said he has research to do. His notion might amount to nothing, he said.
If the department ever does sell ads, he said, they won’t be tasteless.
“A little spot on the corner,” he said. “Not a big (ad) down the side.”