Ad agency puts forth an honest effort

Andrew Edwards

They call themselves Honest Mechanics and work out of a “garage,” but

they’re not fixing cars, they’re trying to help people sell them.

Costa Mesa’s Honest Mechanics Advertising has been around for

about a year and a half, partner Rick Thrasher said. And the four-man

partnership scored a new account in January when it inked a contract

to promote Kelly Blue Book’s website to car dealerships.

Kelly Blue Book, based in Irvine, is best known for compiling

price guides used by car hunters looking to buy a used car, and auto

dealerships pricing old vehicles, Thrasher said. The company hired

Honest Mechanics to convince car dealers to pay Kelly Blue Book to

direct Web surfers to their dealership.

“Our job is to take all those eyeballs, all those customers, and

tell dealers that we have all these buyers,” Thrasher said.

For the Kelly Blue Book ad, which is directed at car dealers,

Honest Mechanics used a visual of a young woman peering into a car. A

past campaign for Fatburger was more edgy. One sign for the fast food

chain called an unnamed Fatburger competitor “big, fat stinkin’

liars” for claiming to sell homemade burgers.

“Only Fatburger can pull off that attitude, you can’t do that with

Ruby’s,” partner Bil Dicks explained, adding that the chain has a

“cult-like” following and a jazzy image.

Thrasher, Dicks and Honest Mechanics’ other two partners, Bruce

Mayo and Dominic Symes, like to use the word “relevance” when they

talk about their advertising philosophy. Symes said the four define

relevance as a presentation that communicates a client’s attitude and

product and stands out from the competitors.

Many car dealerships, Symes said, don’t have relevant ads.

Dealerships whose commercials show their general manager or owner

talking about the cars look just like everybody else’s ads.

“The first thing we do is, we don’t do that,” Symes said.

But trying to be unique isn’t an excuse to go crazy.

“You wouldn’t go to Kelly Blue Book and say, ‘Let’s use dancing

hula girls,’” Thrasher said.

Figuring out how to be relevant is the result of brainstorming

sessions fueled by PowerBars and coffee, Mayo said. When developing a

scheme, the partners bring up any idea that comes to mind.

“Every idea’s good -- you just put it up,” he said. “At first,

it’s quantity, and then you narrow it down.”