car advert number plates

[angleterre7]

Why in car adverts do the number plates have some sort of letter coding on them, what does it represent?

[hertz]

I think it is just for anonymity, so that the advert is not dated by a year identifier or region, or that someone else's number plate is not used in error

[Phantaxus]

A lot of the number plates used in car adverts use numbers and letters that look the same reversed. This is so they can 'flip' the image if they need to

[IndieSinger]

Also it might be worth remembering that some adverts for foreign cars (well that would be 99% of cars now...) use their foreign adverts to save money (with English writing and/or words/slogans). Or at least use the pictures from them. So to that extent, some numberplates look different because they are foreign (like the German ones (Volkswagen, BMW, Audi etc.) with two coloured circles on them).

[aliasbob]

I think the adverts are reversed for left/right hand drive markets and the number splates used are reversible and still read correctly WVW 101 for example