Arresting Bumper Stickers - Part II

It is my quest to find the bumper stickers that (a) rock your world; (b) make you think; and/or (c) make you laugh. Bearing this in mind, please take a moment to peruse the following ...

This one is a little bit difficult to read, as the photo was taken with my camera phone, through the front windscreen of the car, but it says "I'm polluting your air". How refreshingly honest, I thought to myself. A 4wd driver who publicly acknowledges the impact they're having on the environment. Then I noticed the bottom line of the sticker, in smaller print, http://www.nosuv.org/ which reminded me of a plan some friends and I had years ago of having anti-4wd stickers printed up. We planned to have them printed on the stickiest of sticky, lurid coloured paper using the most powerful glues known to humanity, and then we were going to do 'missions' under cover of darkness to sticker 4wd vehicles. We had some fantastic slogans. If only I could remember them ... But, how wonderful that the subject 4wd driver obviously hadn't noticed the sticker by the time I took the photo. I wonder how long it had been there ?

I couldn't help but warm to the owner of these bumper stickers, reminding me of a short documentary film I saw last year called 'Rare Chicken Rescue' about a man suffering depression whose one passion in life is finding and caring for exotic chickens.

In case you can't read the stickers in the picture, the chook related ones read as follows (from left to right):

DUCK in & have a GANDER, We'll talk CHOOK! http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
Backyard Poultry, More than just a hobby, http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
SHIT HAPPENS, My chooks make it useful! (accompanied by a cartoon of a chook ... er, shitting)Chook MAGNET, http://www.backyardpoultry.com/
DON'T FOLLOW ME, I'm going to a chook show!

I can report that our car currently boasts two bumper stickers, one rather subtle white text on a clear background for FBI fm and the second, a rather less subtle black bumper sticker with white graphics and text promoting Sea Shepherd. MBH recently tried to make the addition of a Collingwood 'Side by Side' Member 2009 sticker. I'm not ashamed to admit I fake cried to avoid that one.

Arresting Bumper Stickers - Part I

Are bumper stickers a window into the soul? I like to imagine the type of person that belongs to a particular bumper sticker, and why they chose to say that particular thing about themselves and/or their interests for the world to see. Stickers like 'I fish and I vote' don't tend to arouse too much interest, nor the ubiquitous 'Your Rights At Work' campaign stickers. They are simply too common and too broad. Unions and lobby groups send those kind out and sometimes the members use them. End of story from my perspective. Although, I still remember the time I saw an Energy Australia car parked in Centennial Park sporting a sticker reading 'I Work and I Vote', which was nicely counterpointed by the 'worker' sleeping soundly within the vehicle. As one of my friends said, 'I Nap And I Vote' doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Another time I was stopped behind a van in traffic and noticed with mounting delight a full array of animal rights bumper stickers pretty much all over the back doors and window of the van. First I saw an Animals Australia sticker: 'Live Export: Indefensible' and Animal Lib's 'Ban Battery Cages' and the Animal Lib logo sticker, plus lots more that I am well acquainted with along the meat-is-murder lines and the oft-seen Greenpeace sticker. When the lights changed I attempted to drive up next to their passenger window so I could offer some acknowledgement of kinship. I don't really know what I was going to do, and I was spared the decision when they turned right ahead of me and out of my life.

Other bumper stickers grab my attention for entirely different reasons. The picture, above, illustrates a perfect example of that 'other' kind of bumper sticker. The kind that makes me feel that if I met the owner of sticker at a dinner party it would be a decidedly uncomfortable situation. There might even be tension and hostility if alcohol had already sufficiently disinhibited us before we met. Having said that, I'd love to meet the owner of this particular bumper sticker. The sticker's savage poetry intrigued me. When I first saw it I even wondered where such a thing could be bought!

I've never quite had the brass monkeys to put a bumper sticker on my own vehicle. The boring reason is they cause uneven fading on the duco and the more convincing one is the thought that everyone will think I'm a maddie. And who could possibly stop at one sticker? All too hard, which is why my ride has always been sans sticker.