Bumper stickers can be found all over the world today. They’re the perfect souvenirs to bring home from a vacation, as they definitely won’t weigh down your suitcase. And if you use your car every day, they’ll be constant reminders of your exciting adventures. But do you know the history of bumper stickers?
According to Car Stickers, they first came onto the scene in 1940. Forrest P. Gill, a Kansas City, Missouri, native, used adhesive paper and fluorescent paint to create the very first bumper stickers, which he called “bumper strips.” Unsurprisingly, the tourism industry was the first to really embrace these cute little stickers. Apparently, resorts and attractions would even stick them on visitors' cars without asking!
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Another huge step for bumper stickers was the 1952 American presidential election. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famous “I Like Ike” slogan revolutionized political campaigns, as it turned bumper stickers into a staple item for politicians. As you can see from this list, people are still extremely keen on placing political stickers on their vehicles.
As printing technology evolved in the 1950s, screen printing allowed companies to easily mass-produce their stickers. And by the time computers could be used to upload and print stickers in the 1990s, they really took off. Today, it seems like these stickers are everywhere. And as you can see from this list, you can put literally any message you want on your car!
CarMax reports that a whopping 60% of car owners have put at least one sticker on their vehicle at one point or another. These might be simple messages like “Baby on board!” or funny, sarcastic lines like “No baby on board; okay to hit!” Many people will put stickers featuring places they’ve visited, where they went to university, where their kids go to school, what religion they follow, lyrics from their favorite band, the logo of their favorite sports team, and more. The possibilities are endless!
Some people even argue that personal bumper stickers might turn a boring highway commute into an uplifting social interaction. Walter Goettlich, a doctoral student in sociology who has researched how social communication can emerge from bumper stickers, told KU News that these stickers are one of the only ways we can learn about the people around us when we’re isolated in our own vehicles.
"Bumper stickers open up the possibility to try to imagine who it is that would have such a message on their car," he noted. "They can make you feel a certain way. Or you can see something and say, 'Oh, that's one of those people,' and other times just be flummoxed.”
Drivers also tend to make assumptions about other people on the road based on the bumper stickers they display. One person Goettlich interviewed said they would assume a person was arrogant if they had a New York Yankees sticker. Meanwhile, a Harley-Davidson sticker might make other drivers assume that a person is patriotic. Some bumper stickers can be polarizing too, especially if they display a polemical message.
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As far as why people are so obsessed with branding their vehicles with stickers, Paul Harrison, Director of the MBA program at Deakin University, wrote a piece for The Conversation exploring this. He noted that some people use them to “clarify identity in a hostile political environment,” as they are considered “low-cost identity displays.” They’re cheaper than tattoos or fancy clothing, and they’re less risky than a dramatic haircut. Bumper stickers are an easy way to tell those around you something about yourself without needing to have a face-to-face interaction.
