HIGH RIDGE, Mo. (April 7, 2000)—Dobbs Tire & Auto Centers Inc. has initiated a new advertising campaign that includes four new TV spots with the theme: "You have more important things to worry about than your car. That´s our job."
Ed Musen, a partner at Kupper Parker Communications Inc. (KPC) in St. Louis, said the theme was developed from research showing Americans and especially working couples feel stress from their jobs, their children and a shortage of time.
Each spot uses a stressful situation to set up the message that drivers should use Dobbs for auto and tire service. In one of the spots two members of a police bomb squad are trying to defuse a bomb when they suddenly hear a ticking sound.
One man tells the other, "My car is making a sound like that." Then the tag line appears.
In another spot, a pregnant woman is getting an ultra-sound examination while her husband anxiously looks at the screen. Seeing the images of four babies on the screen, the viewer sees the shocked look on the husband´s face and then the tag line appears.
The campaign includes radio and newspaper ads and four different billboards, with images from each of the TV spots, which will be placed along busy highways in the St. Louis area.
KPC is the largest advertising agency in the St. Louis market and in the top 200 nationally, Mr. Musen said. Dobbs has 36 locations in St. Louis with estimated sales of $61 million in 1999. The dealership wouldn´t reveal the cost of this campaign but did say it spends between 5 and 7 percent of sales on advertising. &Copy;