Vanity For Your Car

Understanding Why Vanity Plates are All the Rage These Days

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

I've been seeing more and more cars with vanity plates lately. I know these plates are pricey, so I don't understand why so many people are getting them. What's wrong with the standard license plate of a jumble of letters and numbers? If you want to personalize your car, get a bumper sticker!

Sincerely,

Now Cars Are Vain Too

Dear Now Cars Are Vain Too,

Thousands of drivers spend good money — $45 in New York — to stamp a personal message on their license plate. It seems like the more affluent a county, the more this activity is happening.

Psychologically speaking, why do people like personalized or “vanity” license plates?

It’s hard to separate vanity plates from UTube, MySpace web pages or vanity-Googling. Information flow has never been faster and more saturated than it is now, and when you combine human egos with that technology, there’s a big need for attention. Look at me! That’s what vanity plates, personal websites and UTube videos scream. Connect with me! That’s what online dating profiles beg. Here I am! That’s what mobile phones with photo taking and sending capability foster.

The reason this vanity is happening in more affluent communities is that these technologies are pricey, relatively speaking. The cost of a vanity license plate is a lot for some people, and so those with more disposable income are more prone to spending it on vanity license plates and other technologically “monogrammed” or personalized items.

But even when there is little to no money, people still find ways to call attention to themselves — through graffitti and personalized tagging, piercings, and other make up like tattoos that create the same message with less technology involved.

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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