Stuff We Like: Nuanced Bumper Stickers

Not the type to rock a bumper sticker? Perhaps your views are simply too nuanced--or ambivalent--for the type of stickers you've seen tooling around town.

Zazzle understands that not everyone identifies with the type of sentiments that commonly characterize the nation's bumpers. Their solution is a special section called Nuanced, Ambivalent, or Guarded, which features sentiments such as...

..."I fervently hope the local squadron defeats the out-of-town squadron in the upcoming sporting contest"...

..."I attended or am otherwise affiliated with a creditable university, to which I give my continued allegiance"...

and the classic, "I support one of the leading political candidates, but that's about all I'd like to say about the matter for now."

Fair enough!

Annals of Sticktivism: I Park Like an Idiot

Most of our posts from the wide world of Sticktivism deal with people doing their best to make the world a better place with stickers. (Yes.) Through Journalism Warning Labels, for example, or These Come From Trees.

These stickers, however, don't want to save the world. They just want to provide some stress relief for the driving public.

Now you, too, can turn your annoyance at the sheer stupidity of those who park badly into an instant laugh, for yourself and others. Just keep your I Park Like an Idiot stickers handy, when you see someone hogging two parking spots, blocking traffic, missing those white lines by a mile (or in any other way parking like an idiot) just pull out one of these stickers while no one's looking and...well, we didn't tell you to do it.

I Park Like an Idiot stickers are 10 x 3 inches and bright yellow, so no one will be able to miss them--and they're low-tac, so they're not that hard for the offending driver to remove. Available in packs of 20 for $10.

Hello Kitty Stickers Grow Up

Hello Kitty stickers, Hello Kitty stickers! You can almost feel your inner (small, female) child jumping up and down, can't you?

Well, maybe you can and maybe you can't. But here at Custom Sticker Makers, we like to keep track of hot search sticker search terms--and while stick figure families come and go, Hello Kitty stickers seem to have some real staying power.

Hello Kitty was "born" in Japan in 1974, when a young Tokyo-based company called Sanrio asked designer Ikuko Shimizu to invent a cartoon animal who would appeal to the preteen girl in everyone; they planned to use it to decorate a plastic coin purse. Thirty-six years later, Hello Kitty's adorable, oddly mouthless mug has adorned everything from erasers and barrettes to bowling balls and sewing machines--all with that distinct style of Japanese consumer culture ultra-cute known as kawaii.

Because so many grown women grew up with Hello Kitty, there are now all kinds of Hello Kitty items aimed at big girls--such as this Hello Kitty bumper-sticker.

But our favorite Hello Kitty stickers are the ones that are still most likely to send little girls into kawaii-induced fits, such as this massive sticker pack, perfect for slumber parties.

Bumperstickers, Plato and You: If You Can Read This...The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers

There are those who may think political bumperstickers, philosophical or just plain funny bumperstickers are a less than serious form of discourse. But at least one thinker with real academic credentials seems to take them seriously: Jack Bowen, author of If You Can Read This: the Philosophy of Bumper Stickers, (which comes to us via Websticker's Marketing and Custom Sticker Blog).

Mr. Bowen--a graduate from Stanford University and holds a Masters Degree in Philosophy from California State University--has dedicated his big brain to dissecting the deep thoughts behind such common sentiments as:

• If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't More People Happy?
• At Least The War On The Environment Is Going Well
• Less Bark: More Wag
• Don't Believe Everything You Think

From the website:
"Long before blogs, tweets, and sound-bites, people were telling the world how they felt in brief, blunt bursts of information plastered on the backs of their cars. Whether they're political or religious, passionate or proud, controversial or corny, these brightly-colored, boldly-lettered mini manifestoes are declarations of who we are, where we stand, and what we'd rather be doing. But as bestselling author and noted philosopher Jack Bowen reveals, there's much more to this pop-culture phenomenon than rolling one-liners and drive-by propaganda--no less, in fact, than a wise, funny, poignant, contentious, and truthful discourse on the human condition."

This book has received some great reviews and we're looking forward to reading it here at Custom Sticker Makers.

Curious? The book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indie Bound, and elsewhere.