Posts Tagged ‘Bumper Stickers’

The Lighter Side of Politics: The Political Bumper Sticker

// January 21st, 2012 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

Politics brings out the best and the worst in people, whether it is the candidates grasping for votes or the electorate themselves, but in any event, there is a great deal of fun to be had from watching the great democratic process in action.

One of the funniest aspects of the political arena is the number of political bumper stickers which make their appearance, not just at election time but whenever a “popular” politician is in office.

We should all be grateful for free speech!

So here is a selection of vehicular commentary on the political scene for your enjoyment:

George “W” Bush

Love him or hate him, George gave us more fun than any president since the last one.  Bushism’s litter the modern lexicon and here are just a few to cause a smrik or two:

  • Bush – End of an Error
  • Bush – Like a Rock, Only Dumber
  • If You Can Read This You Ain’t Our President
  • We Need a President Who Is Fluent In At Least One Language

There are so many more, but it’s just not fair to concentrate on Ole’ George, so let’s take a look at someone else.

Hilary Clinton

run-hill

We could have take a look at her husband, Bill Clinton and “W’s” predecessor, but Hilary provokes the kind of right-wing ire that liberals feel with Bush;

  • “Run Hilary Run!” – this was the best-selling political bumper sticker in New York because Republicans adopted it too – the difference was, they put the sticker on the front fender;
  • Monica’s X-Boyfriend’s Wife for President

Now we could go on for quite some time yet, but in the interests of political balance, it is only fair we make sure every political figure get’s the same exposure.

President Obama

President Obama is suffering from what many president’s before him have experienced – a turn in public acceptance and approval after they get elected.  President Obama is in the midst of major legislative efforts with the financial crisis and getting a healthcare system established, and both these areas are fertile ground for bumper sticker aficionados:

  • Obamacare – 9 out of 10 Illegal Immigrants Prefer It;
  • Nobama (the ubiquitous play on words);
  • HONK! If I’m Paying Your Mortgage
  • So, How’s That Hope and Change Working Out for You?

Not to worry, President Obama still has another three years of office to run, so there is plenty of time to iron out the kinks in any humor argument.  At the next election who do you think will be running against him – Sarah Palin perhaps?

Ex-Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin

Going rogue seems to be what Sarah is all about these days, after quitting as the Governor of Alaska, ostensibly to spend more time with her family (or plotting on the takeover of the free world by becoming the first female US President).

No stranger to controversy, Sarah provokes the best and worst in people:

  • I Can See Russia from My House (no she couldn’t);
  • Coldest State, Hottest Governor;
  • I Wanna be Sarah’s Intern!;
  • Pregnant Unwed High School Dropouts for Palin!
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Political Bumper Stickers – A Revised History

// December 22nd, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

Developed shortly after World War II, bumper stickers have been constant sites on American roadways since that time.  One use for bumper stickers for political campaigns.  We saw it in the last presidential election for sure, and even lesser elections promote their candidates with bumper stickers.  Call them “pieces of flair” for your car – but with a political message.

It is interesting to look at some political bumper stickers through the years.  It is not entirely accurate to say that the quality of bumper sticker determines the outcome of a presidential campaign (because that would be crazy!), we will let you draw your own assumptions.  It might be true that good bumper sticker doesn’t hurt.

The 1964 presidential election was a political showdown between Lyndon B. Johnson (with running mate Hubert Humphrey) on the Democrat side, and Barry Goldwater (with running mate William Miller) on the Republican side.  Johnson beat Goldwater by a good margin.  Johnson received 486 electoral votes to Goldwater’s 52, and he carried 44 states (plus Washington, D.C.) to Goldwater’s 6.  Just in case you’re concerned about popular vote, Johnson kind of swept that, too – winning 61.1% of the popular vote.

Goldwater bumper sticker

LBJ bumper sticker

There are pros and cons to both of these bumper stickers.  Goldwater does a good thing by putting his picture on his – no matter what your mug looks like you want voters to know the faces of the guys they have to vote for.  LBJ does a good thing by putting a rhyming slogan on his bumper sticker.  “LBJ for the USA” has a nice ring to it.  They both use kind of icky colors, but color matching wasn’t invented yet, so we cannot be sure that these photos properly depict the actual shade of these pieces of political schwag.  The orangey-red is much more appealing than the goldish green, no matter which way you cut it.

The 1984 presidential election came down to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush versus Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.  The statistics for the election were similar in proportion to the 1964 election.  Reagan-Bush received 525 electoral votes to Mondale-Ferraro’s 13, carried 49 states to the opposition’s 1 (plus Washington, D.C.), and won 58.8% of the popular vote.

This was a ground-breaking election in that Geraldine Ferraro was the first female to run for Vice President.  Bumper sticker-wise, they were pretty cut-and-dry.

mondale-sticker

reagan-sticker

Obviously, it is easier to read the Reagan-Bush bumper sticker.  White text on a red background is hard to see from a car on the highway.  Also, Reagan and Bush’s names are on the same level on their bumper sticker, while Mondale’s name appears above Ferraro’s on their bumper sticker.  Sheer coincidence, or a strategic ploy to undermine Ferraro’s role in the campaign?  Probably the former, but we love a good conspiracy theory.

The 2008 presidential election was a little closer than the previous two, but since it was the most recent it is worth mentioning.  This election came down to the now-President Barack Obama (with running mate Joe Biden) and Republican candidate John McCain (with running mate Sarah Palin).  Obama won 365 electoral votes as opposed to McCain’s 173, 52.9% of the popular vote, and carried 28 states (plus Washington, D.C.).

maccain 2008 bumper sticker

obama 2008 bumper sticker

These are the standard bumper stickers that floated around during the campaign.  This was also a ground-breaking election in that Barack Obama became the first African-American president in the history of the U.S.  Hence the “Yes We Can” bumper stickers that also made appearances during the election.  There is certainly something to be said for a catchy and emotionally compelling slogan.

With the increasing availability of custom-printed bumper stickers, there is the possibility of “rogue advertising” and you can order your own political message to put on a bumper sticker.  There is a world of possibility with custom labels these days, which should change the face of political advertising forever.

article provided by Mark Trumper

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The Evolution of the Bumper Sticker

// November 22nd, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

1912-ford-model-t-2-lg

Model T - No Bumpers

The bumper sticker could not predate the invention of the motor car but, if you know that the Model T Ford was the first car to be mass manufactured and therefore it must have been the first car to have had bumper stickers slapped on it, you’d be wrong!

The Model T Ford had no bumpers!

Model A - Bumpers

Model A - With Bumpers

The first car to be adorned with bumper stickers was a Ford, the Model A which was introduced in 1927 and sometime between that date and the onset of the Second World War, someone cooked up the idea of the “bumper sticker”. Who this someone was is the subject of speculation and urban legend, though many ascribe the invention to a Kansas City entrepreneur, Forest Gill.

Gill was a printer and had formed his print company using his basement back in 1934. As the clouds of war started to loom, patriotic fever took hold and Forest came up with Gill-line, whereby bumper stickers, usually of the flag or a patriotic slogan, were held to the car bumper by means of wire. You simply twisted the wire to hold the slogan in place and untwisted to remove it when needed. Gill realized that a printed slogan with adhesive backing would do the job much more conveniently and switched to what we would recognize as a modern day bumper sticker.

After the war, with millions of people returning to normal civilian life, there was a spate of elections and political activity. Politicians soon grasped the marketing potential of the bumper sticker to get their campaign message across or simply their name, usually with a ballot box tick next to their name.

None of us would have any difficulty in recognizing these types of bumper stickers and for once, politicians had stolen a march on private companies looking to promote their own products. This quickly followed with a wide range of goods and brands being advertised on bumper stickers and the concept of a “viral” marketing campaign became established as a consequence. The idea behind a viral marketing campaign is to give something away which helps you to promote your brand but which not only the consumer who has the item, i.e. the bumper sticker, but also encourages and motivates their friends, family and connections to do the same – in fact anyone that sees one!

This brings us neatly to the Sixties and the free-love generation with hippies, anti-war protests and a time of civil and social turmoil in the country. The bumper sticker enjoyed a resurgence and renaissance in terms of use and the art and humor which went into their creation. Bumper stickers also became a whole lot more daring and risqué in terms of both imagery and language used, but it was both sides of the political, social and cultural divide which stretched the boundaries.

There is something to be sad about with the state of the bumper sticker today; there is something refreshing about reading “Better 2 Feet in NATO than a Cold Ass in Siberia” compared to “My Kid is an Honor Roll Student” . Not saying you have to agree with what a bumper sticker says, but there is no reason not to enjoy a smile at their expense!

Mark Trumper

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Top 10 Bumper Stickers … and How to Buy Them!

// August 15th, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers, Buying Bumper Stickers

Bumper stickers are almost as old as the automobile itself when some wag having shelled out for a Model T decided it was breaking down far too often, took too much maintenance and generally was not a good deal – this disgruntled customer came up with the anti-marketing slogan the Ford Motor Company has come to hate:

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily!

Apart from disgruntled car buyers, bumper stickers have become a part of the daily commute and road trip scene and the search is on for something better than, “My Kid is an Honor Student” or “Vote for Whoever”

2806330279_7a4bde423cHere are the Top 10 bumper stickers compiled with the help of Facebook which are gracing our automobiles today:

Constipated People Don’t Give a Crap!

Oops, I Think My Karma Just Ran Over Your Dogma

Be Nice To Nerds – Chances Are You’ll End Up Working For One

I Child-Proofed My House, But They Still Get In

Caution: I Drive Like You

I Have the Body of a God: Buddha

Illiterate? Write for Help

Better to be a Smart Ass than a Dumb Ass

Ever Stop to Think…And Forget to Start Again?

Heart Attacks: God’s Revenge for Eating His Animal Friends

Obviously, most of these are pretty coarse and what you’d expect from the college students – you know the type, future leaders, captains of industry, doctors, dentists, lawyers and generally the future.

If your own taste varies or even if it doesn’t, how do you get your hands on a bumper sticker which may contain the same lines but has something very different to offer?

More than this, where on earth do you go to find a supplier who will take your ideas and designs and come up with very own, unique and no-one else has it bumper sticker?

The answer is simple – turn on the computer and enter “bumper sticker printing” into your search engine and see how many search results come back offering their services for printing your very own bumper sticker! We recommend MaverickLabel.com.

The question isn’t where do you get them from but how do you select from the hundreds of thousands of printers out there offering their services?

First, make sure you are dealing with a company which has a physical address and landline telephone number here in the US.

Second, check the prices they are offering and whether they have standardized templates ready for you to customize.

Third, make sure they have a secure payment section on their website – you can do this simply by looking on the payment page and taking a peek at the section where the website address is displayed – you should see this, https://websitename.com – notice that little s in there?  That is your security that the website is secure and protected so no-one else can get hold of your credit card or banking information.

Fourth, check online by doing a search on the company you are thinking of placing the order with – there are plenty of consumer forums and review sites out there and if you see positive reviews, you know you are dealing with a reputable company that means business.

Finally, ensure the order will not take weeks to produce – many companies operating overseas do this and it is impossible to speed them up once they have your money – make sure you read the small print and make sure they are based in the country and not overseas.

See FunnyBumperz.com for more funny bumper stickers.

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Bumper Stickers Get Attention for Our Children’s Library 5K Walk

// June 29th, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

PHOENIX, AZ - OCTOBER 21: Newt Gingrich holds...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Building a new children’s library is expensive and we’ve done a variety of fundraisers. But I would have to say that our 5K walk was one of the most successful – and it wouldn’t have even made it if it wasn’t for the bumper stickers.

One of our volunteers said, “Let’s do a 5K walk.” And everyone agreed. They thought it was a great idea. The best thing about planning a walk is that the expenses are relatively low and many people like walks today as a special event. It’s something you can bring your kids to or get the entire family involved in. For a children’s library, that’s a very important factor. We didn’t want to do a stuffy black tie dinner – an event where children were involved truly fit with our mission.

But we were having trouble with sign ups. With the library under construction, less people are coming. The parking lot is a lot smaller so fewer cars can park there. So even though sign up sheets and flyers are in the main library, we weren’t seeing families sign up the way we hoped. We realized because the library was under construction was probably the challenge we were facing. I was out jogging one morning and noticed the bumper stickers on my daughter’s car. She had one that was particularly funny that always made me smile. Then it hit me…people notice bumper stickers, so why not create one to promote our children’s library 5k?

Our bumper stickers were created quickly and they had our Readie the Owl mascot on them. We asked neighboring libraries to put them at their desks too so people could pick them up there. We gave them to volunteers and board members. We gave them out at the children’s schools locally. Soon everyone knew about the walk and our sign ups soared. We had more than a thousand people signed up for our walk. We were not only excited but a little nervous. It was our first walk and we were almost beyond capacity. These bumper stickers had really worked like a charm.

The 5k walk went well and everyone had a good time. The kids did a shorter walk and there were activities for them. The funds raised went to help build the children’s library. But everyone had such a great time and we had such a positive turn out we are thinking about making this an annual event. With library budgets what they are today, raising money to help the library can be very useful to help add programs and special events for the children once the library has been completed.

Our bumper stickers worked better than sending out a press release, making flyers or simply getting the word out in another way. With a local community event people notice bumper stickers on people’s cars. Whether at the grocery store, waiting to pick up kids at school or simply running errands that car helps to promote our 5k walk for the library. I know we’ll be using funny bumper stickers in the future for other library programs and events.

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Charity School 5K Raises Awareness and Funds with Bumperstickers

// April 13th, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

The Middleton Lake Elementary School was looking for fundraisers and we considered many options. We were looking for one that many people would want to participate – and especially one where entire families could join in and enjoy. We looked at a number of fundraisers and finally decided that a charity 5k walk a thon was the ideal choice. A healthy fundraiser was perfect to encourage children to be physically fit as well as raising money for the new school gym.

Our biggest challenge seemed to be letting families know about the charity 5k to encourage them to sign up and also support families that were walking. We just didn’t have a budget that would support lots of costly advertising. We chose to make bumperstickers promoting our charity 5k and they were a great success. The school office and every teacher had bumperstickers available for parents and families to take and put on their cars. We also gave bumperstickers to a number of the local businesses that supported our walk a thon, like the local deli that donated snacks and drinks.

I think one of our most successful choices with the bumpersticker was that we had a contest with the kids to design it. The top designs were voted on blind – so students didn’t know which other students created them. The best design was selected and announced at our kickoff for the event. It was something that generated a lot of excitement. Even though only one child won, many children had fun designing for the contest. This is something I know we’ll do again because the children had so much fun with it.

The bumperstickers were a great success! After the first week of giving out the bumperstickers – we had to place a new order to get more bumperstickers. It seemed that everyone wanted one for every car the family owned. Some were also giving them to grandparents and other family members – like as a thank you gift for supporting them as a fundraiser for the walk a thon. This was just terrific. Every time we saw the bumper stickers around town we would smile and know that more people in town were being informed of our charity walk a thon. Our dreams of building a new gym were finally coming true.

Things got more exciting when we got a call from the local newspaper. They’d seen a bumpersticker on an employee’s car and asked if they could do a story about the walk a thon. The newspaper was at our school for nearly an entire day, taking photographs and talking with teachers. The newspaper article was a terrific boost to everyone who worked so hard on this event. I know for a fact we wouldn’t have gotten that newspaper article without those bumperstickers.

The day of our walk a thon was momentous. We had quite a crowd. Hundreds of families came out to support their school. Even people that didn’t have kids came out to support the school. It meant so much to us. The walk a thon day was a terrific day. We raised nearly $25,000 after we paid our expenses.

The bumpersticker was such a success with our supporters that we decided to do a thank you bumpersticker saying “I Supported” for everyone. We gave these out at the end of the walk and mailed some of them to the larger contributors. This bumpersticker was just as popular as our original bumpersticker.

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Bumper Stickers, Your Fortune Cookie Fortune on the Road

// March 4th, 2011 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

Bumper sticker

Image via Wikipedia

Ever driven along in the commuter traffic with your mind somewhere else only to look at the bumper sticker on the car in front of you and think, “A Ha!”.  As Forrest Gump’s mom said about life and chocolates, the same applies with bumper stickers – they are all around us, but with every car journey you take, you never know what you’re going to get.

Bumper stickers are the repository for the nations self-expression, which is why we see so many stickers proclaiming “My kid’s an honor student” or something of that ilk.  The real nuggets, what we like to think of as the real bumper sticker equivalent of fortune cookies, are those stickers which catch you at that precise moment in time when you are attuned to the message they are sending.  Usually, it’s a humorous message which grabs you but it isn’t always the case – there are some deep and meaningful bumper stickers out there if you open your eyes and your mind when you’re on the road.

Some fortune cookies which have impressed us include:

“I’m an intellectual and I have the bumper sticker to prove it”

“Run Hillary, Run”

(fixed to the rear of the car if a Democrat and the front if a Republican)

“I’m an atheist, thank God!”

Bumper stickers resemble fortune cookie advisories but for different reasons: they are both made up of throw away lines, sound bites in fact.  They are by necessity, brief and short because they impart a strong message using very few words, practically performing the same function as poetry – expressing ideas rhythmically with as few a number of words as is possible.  Imagine what would become of a bumper sticker line if it was matched with verse: certainly the result would be very interesting, but this is also where bumper stickers beat poetry because you only have time to see a snapshot of a line and not an entire verse.

The successful bumper stickers which feed the brain are those which have just enough of a hook to attract your attention and make you think just that little bit extra.  This applies even if you are a redneck driving your truck with the oversize mud wheels down the road:

“No mountain too high, no ditch too deep”

We challenge anyone to say that is not as deep and meaningful as something such as, “Minds are like parachutes; they don’t work when they’re closed”.

Bumper stickers are far more prevalent in our society because they are so widely used, much more so than fortune cookies and yet, the latter has more of a place in our cultural lexicon.  We find this very strange given the impact bumper stickers have in our daily lives but perhaps our familiarity with them has led to some relative contempt.  Bumper stickers are clearly much more valuable and far more likely to bring a grin to your face or provoke a thought in your brain than any fortune cookie.  Unlike fortune cookies, what you are likely to read on a bumper sticker will also have far more relevance to what is happening in your life and immediate future than any proverbial claim to expect to become rich in the future.

Perhaps the trend towards combining fortune cookies with bumper stickers is a salutary nod in the direction of just how important the latter has become in our lives:

“Your eyes are telling you – Keep your eyes on the road moron!”

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Bumper stickers: The Perfect Choice for Schools

// November 9th, 2010 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

Honor Student School Bumper StickerThere are many uses for bumper stickers. One of the most popular today is to create personalized bumper stickers for schools. Parents, family members and friends are proud to have bumper stickers that say something great about their child and the school they attend on their vehicle. It is an easy way to brag about their child and share their accomplishments and success.

Schools can also use bumper stickers as a way of letting the public know about the great programs they have and the achievements of their students. These bumper stickers as they are seen on the road, grocery store and other places let people know just how wonderful the school is. Whether it is a public or a private school, these bumper stickers can only serve to boost the morale and image of the school. It can also increase enrollment as parents want to learn more about this great school they’ve heard about from bumper stickers.

One of the reasons bumper stickers are so popular is they are easy to produce and are fairly inexpensive. It is something that is quite practical to give to parents and families as a small gift. There are other promotional items that are a lot of fun – like t-shirts – that can be much more costly. Best of all, with bumper stickers they are “worn” every day, rain or shine.

A popular bumper sticker for schools is proclaiming that “My Child is an Honor Student at (name of school).” This is something that any parent would be proud of – to have a child on the honor roll. A child who achieves getting on the honor roll is obviously smart. So the school is praised for encouraging and nurturing smart children and helping them to succeed with this bumper sticker.

There are many ideas for school bumper stickers. You aren’t limited to just an honor student bumper sticker. Remember there are many achievements in school and lots of student successes. Sometimes one of the best student successes is participating in a student event. Like a talent show or school fair. If your school has a talent show or a school fair, why not create a bumper sticker for this event? That would easily be a popular bumper sticker for parents and their children.

Another excellent choice is physical fitness. Many children excel at physical fitness. Or they like to participate in a particular sport. Create a bumper sticker for children who excel in gym or who participate in a health day at the school.

The best bumper stickers you can create are ones that make parents feel good about their children and children to feel good about themselves. Some ideas might be to give away less bumper stickers – say for example to all of the students in the school band. Not every student plays a band instrument. But playing an instrument is a great accomplishment and it says something nice about your school that you do have a band and instruments for the children to play.

Bumper stickers get an A+ from schools as an ideal choice to give to parents and families.

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What Makes a Good Bumper Sticker?

// June 24th, 2010 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

Bumper stickers
Image via Wikipedia

We can say a particular bumper sticker has a great tag line, something funny which makes us smile; there may be a great design which catches the eye; it can be promoting something emotive, such as a political or religious viewpoint, or it may be something completely unconnected with any of these factors.  Answering a question like this is very similar to giving a precise answer to “how long is a piece of string” – we don’t really know, but what is reasonable is that a good bumper sticker touches us in some way on a human level.

The majority of bumper stickers are of the humorous variety, and what makes people smirk, smile or laugh has never been defined or quantified, certainly with no more success as anyone may have with herding cats!  Typically, what qualifies as a good, funny bumper sticker is that they are short and punchy, usually very personal (as in the words, “I”, “my” or “your” being used a lot) and they have popular appeal.  It’s a rarity to find a high brow joke on a bumper sticker, but there again is something of the characteristic of a good bumper sticker – you have a highly visible sticker on one of your most valuable possessions, so you’re certainly making a statement and probably you want it to be a popular one.

There is another characteristic which we commonly see with bumper stickers – they are highly personal.  How many times do you see a sticker proclaiming, “My daughter is an honor roll student” or “My son is a US Marine”?  If we have something to say, especially if we are proud of it, there is little better than a bumper sticker to tell the whole, wide world.  Well, perhaps there is the internet with Facebook, but bumper stickers have been around for a lot longer than the internet!

Sticking with the personal theme, another characteristic of a good bumper sticker is that it appeals to our emotions.  Bumper sticker themes are rarely unemotional, usually they are the complete reverse and little else is guaranteed to raise an emotional reaction than politics or religion.  No surprise then that many bumper stickers promote political candidates and parties, or take a stance on religious views in both a positive and negative fashion.

It is wrong to think that bumper stickers are “throw away” philosophy and the product of junk or pop culture.  Many bumper stickers are thought provoking – they need to be because their brevity requires the reader to make some leap with their imagination to get the point.  While the standard, “I Love NY” leaves little to the imagination, many bumper stickers do represent a brain teasing experience as in, “If You Can Read This – I Can Slam on My Brakes and Sue You”.

We can summarize the key features of a good bumper sticker in three words – personal, emotive and short.  There cannot be any such thing as a “long” bumper sticker because the car bumper is too small or the lettering will be unreadable.  The challenge is how to make your bumper sticker demonstrate your personal attributes in an emotional fashion, and how good a sticker is really comes down to how well it provokes that emotional response with a punch.

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Bumper Stickers as Marketing Tools

// March 18th, 2010 // Comments Off // Bumper Stickers

Bumper sticker car parked in Santa Cruz, Calif...
Image via Wikipedia

Bumper stickers have been around almost as long as the automobile – it seems that people just can’t resist adorning their car with something humorous or a personal statement.  It seems that when Henry Ford said customers can have the Model T Ford in any color, as long as it was black, that customers took it upon themselves to take matters into their own hands – after all, the customer is always right!

Bumper stickers started life as an identifier – usually telling other motorists where the car was from – but rapidly was adopted by marketing men in the 1950′s and shortly thereafter, by the hopeful candidates in political elections.  As the 1960′s came and went, bumper stickers have become ever more humorous, more visible and much more popular as a sign of individuality, demeanor and driver personality.

Forget the internet with Facebook and MySpace which lure advertisers with the prospect of millions of eyeballs looking at their web pages – just think of how many more eyeballs are focused on the bumpers of cars every single day!

“Your message here” is very true when you consider how popular bumper stickers are, but just as with social media and internet marketing, there is one attribute you should be looking to emulate – the viral campaign.

Viral marketing seeks to get individuals to take part in a campaign but at the same time, the campaign is designed to encourage or require that other members of their circle of contacts (family, friends, work colleagues) are introduced and in turn, they participate too – one person introduces 5 more, they all introduce 5 more and so and so on.

Bumper stickers can also be used in this way, but they have to be engaging and it also helps if there is something unique about the bumper sticker which makes it a sought after item.  In turn, this allows you as the marketer, to leverage the desirability of the bumper sticker to engage potential customers directly in return for which, they get the opportunity to market your company or product on their car bumper!

Designing a bumper sticker for marketing purposes requires good design skills and a good insight into the minds of potential customers; marketing appeal must be subliminal as you are looking to latch onto an existing social trend and are in effect, gatecrashing someone’s private party.   An example would be where you design a bumper sticker providing a rendition of the flag or name of the state or town you are operating in; this forms the center focus of the bumper sticker but within the design your company and product are incorporated.  Use words such as “Limited Edition” to enhance the impression of exclusivity, and use the sticking backer to provide instructions on how a consumer can get more, e.g. by visiting a website and completing a survey.

Bumper stickers are long lasting pieces of marketing collateral, usually lasting as long as the car itself is on the road.  Bumper stickers are a small, moving billboard which you don’t have to pay for and over the life of the bumper sticker, it will be seen and read by hundreds of thousands of people, and even better, read repeatedly by a significant minority.

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