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A full wrap costs about $3,000 to produce, and advertisers pay as much as $2,000 a month on top of that. One happy Bay Area customer is Adrienne Kolowich, marketing manager of an online lottery called LuckySurf.com She had seven employees' cars wrapped and hired a full-time driver. "I can have him drive down Highway 101"--where a billboard can cost $100,000 a month--"or across the Golden Gate Bridge, or have him hit a Giants game."
Ali Mohebbi, 45, a restaurant-equipment supplier in San Francisco, is turning heads at Fisherman's Wharf. His Beetle is wrapped in a snowy landscape to pitch Dreamery, the gourmet line of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream. Passersby take pictures and ask for free samples.
"Let's say it were a condom ad, Ali--the perfect wrap. Would you still do it?" I ask. He says there's no way he's driving around in a condom. A pedestrian stares at Ali's car, looking like she's already had a scoop or six. "How about this deal, Ali?" I ask. "You get paid $400 to drive around doing nothing, and I get paid to ask you stupid questions?" It's America, says a smiling Ali, who grew up in Iran. "That's why people come here." He hits the gas, and we're like two nuts in a speeding sundae, selling, selling, selling as we go.