in car commercials where they show the car cruising through some mountian pass or whatever, the car will have a licence plate on it, but it will be painted body coloured. what'* the deal with that?

Take the license plate off some cars and you can see the ugly sheetmetal work underneath... I guess seeing the plastic speed nuts and mounting bracket just isn't appealing to the ad agency.

The photo shoots are done on closed highways. (The Smokey Mountains of North Carolina around Deals Gap seems to be a real favorite here of late...can't blame them, it is pretty country and a kickin' road to drive.) Anywho, the plate doesn't even have to be there at all, since it'* officially "off-road" The fake plate is just cosmetic.

And being body colored I would assume doesn't draw as much attention to the plate.