A recent thread on product non-placement in films reminded me of something I started seeing a little over a year ago: license plates in auto commercials are present, but “hidden”.
To be more precise, in a rear shot of the car, there is clearly a plate where the plate should go, complete with raised alphanumerics, but it has been completely colored with the body color of the car – whether with paint or post-production I’m unable to discern. IIRC, they used to just use nothing or a blank in that spot if they didn’t want to use a real tag. Why do they do this now?
On a related note, another commercial I saw in very late 2004 (possibly for insurance rather than for the car itself) used what was very clearly a Maryland plate with black raised alphanumerics on a white background and the shield of the Lords Baltimore in the center, but all the lettering across the top and bottom of the plate was whited out. Similarly, what’s up with this?
This is not something I have noticed on this side of the water. I cannot recall any auto advert in which both front and rear licence plates were not present.
Maybe it is an advertising technique to avoid associating the vehicle with a particular state in order to broaden the market for the commercial?
However, I have noticed that many (but not all) plates in adverts are made using reversable letters and numbers (A,M,8,1 but not B,C,3,5), presumably to allow the editor to flip scenes right/left to achieve a more dramatic effect. Some plates are complete palindromes.
This might not just be for dramatic effect, but to also let them use the same footage for left-driving and right-driving countries. In some shots you can’t see the driver, so it doesn’t matter, but in some, you can.
I’d think that first, but I remember that they used to just have nothing or a nondescript plate. This definitely has a number plate there, but it’s colored over. Why is this seen as better than the old system?