Joyce Pontiac named in false advertising suit

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DeKALB - The Illinois Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit in DeKalb County Circuit Court Thursday alleging that DeKalb-based Joyce Pontiac placed a deceptive advertising insert in a May edition of the Daily Chronicle. In the insert included with the May 14 newspaper, Joyce claimed a "major car rental company" had gone bankrupt, resulting in more than a 100 cars available for sale at the dealership. The attorney general's office says it has found no evidence of such a bankruptcy and that the claim was used as a pretext to get people to visit the dealership. Joyce is charged with three violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act and three violations of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Advertising Regulations. The Cincinnati based advertising firm that allegedly created the ad, Gunning & Associates Marketing Inc., also was charged Thursday in the case. A similar lawsuit against Des Plaines-based Gateway Kia Imports Inc. - which placed a similar ad in the Chicago Sun-Times this spring - was filed in Cook County in April "Consumers reading these ads may have gone down to these dealership to look at one of these vehicles only to find that they did not exist," State Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a press release. "This is misleading and it is illegal." Joyce Pontiac owner Mike Vassallo was not available for comment this morning. The attorney general's office is seeking civil penalties of $50,000 from Joyce for each violation of the statutes, as well as restitution and court costs. Attorney General office spokeswoman Melissa Merz said the office was tipped to the possible violations by an anonymous consumer that mailed in the insert. Daily Chronicle Publisher Chris Doyle explained the process for placing inserts into the paper. "While not commenting on this specific case, readers should know we do have internal standards concerning the acceptance and publication of advertisements and can and do reject submissions considered offensive, misleading or detrimental to the public," said Doyle. "At the same time, we have to be non-discriminatory in our actions and careful not to harm the marketing efforts of our customers. In essence, there are limits to how much we can research advertising claims while still producing a daily newspaper and serving all of our customers." In 1995, Joyce inked a deal with the city of DeKalb that provided the dealership with up to $1.7 million in sales tax rebates as incentive for moving to the city. Car dealerships, which generate large amounts in sales tax revenues, are coveted by cities that rely on those revenues as a major part of their budgets. Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@pulitzer.net.