There’s a radio ad playing on Milwaukee AM radio for some company that fixes chipped windshields without having to replace the entire windshield. You know how it works; they use a resin material to fill in the chip.
What I don’t get is, the ad says “if the chip is smaller than a dollar bill, it can be repaired”.
Smaller than a dollar bill? I don’t get what they’re saying here. Do they mean as deep as a dollar bill is thick? WTF?
Seems pretty obvious to me: A dollar bill is about 6" long by 2.5" wide. They’ll fix any chip smaller than that.
They mean a crack that’s as long as a dollar bill. A dollar bill is 6 inches long, and reading their webpage:
That’s a crack, not a chip.
The ads do not say crack. they say chip. If they said crack, this thread wouldn’t exist.
And you expect that the ad copy person is not capable of substituting the word chip for crack without realizing that it’s making the ad seem nonsensical? 
There is a commercial here for a Québec based business which says something like “if the chip is smaller than a loonie”, they can fix it. Are you located somewhere where you might get a Canadian radio station, or ads for Canadian businesses on your local radio station? They might be saying “dollar coin” and you’re hearing “dollar bill” because it’s what you’re used to?
I said chip, I meant chip. A crack is linear, a chip has some area, like a dollar bill.
This ad DOES say chip, and dollar bill.
It gets me every time. I know they mean the crack, but they say the CHIP must be smaller than a dollar bill. That’s a big chip!
Nah. Milwaukee. I can’t even get Madison radio here, much less Canuck FM.
That’s what I’m saying. If they mean crack, I assumed they’d say “crack”!
Given the conical crater shape of most impacts how could you even have an impact chip much bigger than half dollar coin without it penetrating the window to the point the entire windows is at risk.
They probably call it a chip because the centre of the blemished area IS a chip, however, radiating out from the chip are cracks. I’d think that they mean the combined chip and cracks being smaller than a dollar bill. If you had a 6" chip, the associated cracks would be much bigger.
Try phoning that business and telling them. They just might be more careful next time they make such an ad. I’ve done this, and sometimes it works.
My favorite example was about ten years ago, when I heard frequent radio commercials for a website which sounded very much like “cvs healthwatch”. This made sense, since “CVS” is a very popular chain of drugstores around here. But there was no such website as “cvshealthwatch.com”, despite repeated commercials and repeated attempts. Finally, I saw a billboard on the road advertising the same service, but it was spelled “cbshealthwatch”, complete with the familiar “CBS Eye” logo.
I sent them an email to the effect of “I kept spelling your website wrong! What is CBS doing in the health industry? You have to clarify yourselves in that commercial!” Two days later, I stopped hearing those commericals. I suppose it is possible that they had planned all along that that day would be the end of the radio campaign, but I’d like to think that my email made them decide to pull it from the air and just not bother to redo it.
(That was long before Google worked the magic that it does today. Now, when I google “cvs healthwatch”, it responds with “Did you mean: ‘cbs healthwatch’ ?” - bolding theirs!)
I’m glad they use hydrophobic materials for their patches, cause a dry crack is a happy crack!
Um…
Nah.
I don’t think that ad is produced locally, since I’ve heard it here (Lancaster, PA) as well. Calling the local affiliate of the company will probably just get you a “Well, we don’t control that.”
If the crack has spiderwebbing it won’t be linear and will effectively have some area to it.
I would have started one eventually. That commercial always makes me think crack not chip.
Misleading.
Just wanted to say, that based on this thread I’m having my windshield replaced tomorrow for about half of what the dealer wanted to charge, and that was supposed to be “their cost”. So thanks!
Having listened to this commercial a little more closely, instead of tuning it out as I normally do, my opinion:
They are using “chip” in referring to cracks. In the commercial I hear locally, it makes a pun on it saying something like “When the chips fall, you can count on us!” Also, “chip” sounds rather inocuous. Sounds a little better than “we’ll fix your crack!”
Or even worse, “We’ll fill your crack!”