Well, they would have had alternatives. Like using a different name or just dropping the article completely and going with "Referenz". Choosing "das" seems like

Well, they would have had alternatives. Like using a different name or just dropping the article completely and going with "Referenz". Choosing "das" seems like a very cheap attempt at copying Volkswagen style ads. Not to mention that I'm not sure there's anything connecting "encyclopedia" to "German" (as with "cars"/"engineering").