Of course, there’s always the tactic of “Get our name out there at all costs, whether in a positive or negative way, because name recognition and publicity are everything.” That could be another technique employed by advertisers who use our windshields as repositories for their ads. The more annoyed they make us, the more likely we are to remember their name. Perhaps we’ll mention their name to someone else, who will do the same, and eventually people will forget everything except the name, which will come to mind when they prepare to vote, make a buying decision, etc. Some people may even admire them precisely because of their blatant advertising tactics!

I’m a little late weighing in here, but do you think that one reason we find it so annoying could be that it’s the same technique used for issuing parking tickets? Subconscious association at work! Everyone who advertises anything really needs to take the psychological aspects of the campaign and its methodology into consideration if they expect positive results.

The next week the priest goes on a rampage about the use of the church parking lot for campaigning. The candidate who thought that was a good idea ended up losing big for the position.

So, a politician is advertising via use of a windshield. What else do people find on their windshield? The answer – apart from very cheap advertising – parking tickets. Yep, I don’t know what it’s like in America, but over here, if you get something on your windscreen, it’s usually a parking infringement notice or an advertisement for some completely unwanted service.

Now, if I were a politician, I would want my face seen around sporting events, festivals or other fun places which people associate with positive emotions. But the sight of anything on the windshield almost always elicits a negative state of mind. I would not want my face in the same space as the parking ticket any more than any reputable brand wants to advertise in the same space as junky spam.

Associations with places which people associate with positive experiences help to build the kind of positive image which politicians would want. I highly doubt that the same could be said for any association with being in the same space as parking infringement notices.