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Today's bumper stickers are not the bumper stickers your grandparents knew. The original adhesive-backed paper bumper stickers were next to impossible to remove. They faded and wrinkled and looked horrible after a season or two, but what they lacked in beauty they made up for with tenacity. Yesterday's bumper sticker could cling to a bumper long after a candidate was out of office.
Today's bumper stickers are rarely made of paper. They are printed on easily-removable vinyl material. They are weather resistant and the colors of the inks don't fade. For the most part they're also smaller than the large ones made for the huge chrome bumpers of the late 1940s and 1950.
Today's most popular bumper sticker is 3 x 11.5 and many are being stuck on back windows rather than on bumpers or car bodies. What's hot is the small oval Euro-style bumper sticker, the magnetic bumper sticker which can be instantly removed if you change your mind about the candidate you're supporting, and vinyl widow cling stickers. Although small is in, one of the newest things in political auto expressions are the oversized "Big Head" window clings featuring politicians' heads. Yes you too can drive one of your favorite candidates around!. [If any one finds window clings for any of the GOP candidates, please let me know where I can get them!]
Patti Brown
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Hi Patti,
I'm wondering if you know if people affiliated with a particular party--democrats or republicans--are more likely to display bumper stickers on their cars than others?
Tammy, your question is a good one! There isn't a lot of research in this area. Three years ago, while Ph.D. candidates at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Drs. Kelli Lammie and Lee Humphreys presented a paper at the 2004 annual meeting of the National Communication Association in Chicago called "No Votes for Turncoats" An Analysis of Bumper Stickers as Public Discourse. In their field research – city streets, parking lots and highway rest stops – they found that the majority of all stickers on cars could be classified as nationalistic or patriotic, follwed by stickers related to an affiliation or association (such as an alma mater). Advertising, commercial, geographic and religious or philosophical bumper stickers were more prevalent than those with sport themes, or political opinions. Of all the cars and bumper stickers they observed (400 stickers on approximately 20% of all cars encountered for a total of 193 vehicles with stickers out of approximately 975 cars) candidate bumper stickers accounted for ,5 percent. One of those was for Gore/Lieberman, one was for Bush/Cheney '04. I will be doing a blog on this subject. Thanks so much for your questions. Patti
Greetings Patty,
I heard you on NPR & was impressed. I suspect that your interest is largely devoted to a study of the U.S. But if you would like me to direct you to a fascinating song by an Israeli rock group (translated into English) that explores their slogan-driven society in a song called "Bumpersticker Song" which is entirely composed of such phrases, you are welcome to email me at: rosherman@miami.edu.
Best wishes,
Ranen
Thanks Ranen, I will follow up with you via email. I would like to have the song. Thanks. Patti