Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Bumper Stickers

By Margaret Lucke

Here in the good old USA, people love their cars. They’re also fond of giving advice. Not good advice necessarily, but it’s easy to find people who are willing, even eager, to tell you how to vote, where to go, whom to love, what to buy, and how to live their lives.

It’s not surprising that these two aspects of our culture would come together in a unique American art form: the bumper sticker. If you’re looking for quotes to live by, all you have to do is drive down a highway or walk along a city street.  You’ll find words of wisdom on, well, any topic that matters. Here are just a few examples:

 

Safety Tips:

Ecology and Environmental Issues:

 

Real Estate Investment:

Private Property Rights:

 

Service to Others:

 

Self-Improvement:

 

Stress Reduction Techniques:

 

Putting Things in Perspective:

 

Keeping an Open Mind:

 

And finally, remember this:

* * *

Many thanks to my good friend, the excellent photographer John Pearson, for letting me share pictures from his bumper sticker collection. Most of these photos were taken in or around Berkeley, California.

Comments

[Susan Shea]

I want them all! Thanks for sharing a cool collection, Peggy.

[Staci]

I see some of the funniest quotes on bumper stickers. Of course, I can't remember any of them now, but I like your selection!

[Mysti]

I used to love to read the bumper-sticker festooned, ancient Volvos around Berkeley! You just don't see that kind of bumper art anywhere else (except maybe Boulder, CO).

[rita lakin]

Love the bumper stickers. What about that other unique American art form--- tee shirts with ads on them.

I wonder who the genius was who first talked people into wearing free publicity on their shirts.

Maybe the same genius who inventer condos -- taking every old apartment in a building and making them individual rooms to sell.

Rita

[Margaret Lucke]

Thanks for your kind comments, everyone!

Mysti, that would make for an interesting masters thesis topic for a social sciences grad student -- how regional culture is reflected in a locality's bumper stickers.

Rita, I've often thought there should be a tee shirt museum (and there probably is). Maybe it should be a combined museum featuring tee shirts and bumper stickers.

[todo list]

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