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Editor's Note: Stumper Bickers

Greg Dewar
The Commuter

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Bumper stickers: the bane of any car’s resale value, a comical outlet, a preachy way of forcing other drivers stuck in traffic to know what you believe in, free advertising, and the subject of an obscure urban legend that they are illegal. Indeed, a racecar driver received a “letter of admonishment” for putting a campaign sticker on his racecar in a publicly televised circuit. Indeed, this seems to be the only case of any such action.

Thankfully so, a law like this would’ve spelt doom for myself and my old Volvo that, at the height of its life, had about 50 bumper stickers plastering it- none of them political. A quick google search brings up many blogs of people pulled over by police officers for their bumper stickers and looming threats of “letters of admonishment.” However, nothing seems to be found about any law that says bumper stickers are “illegal” or any records of court cases about it. Urban legend: dissolved, and onto the matter at hand.

Bumper stickers are a window into the soul of a vehicle, they give them life, personality, and most importantly they tell you about the owner. Their thoughts, their dreams, their political affiliations, and sometimes, it’s just a sticker that means nothing, but looks “cool.” Considering that on average a single sticker can devalue your car, you have to have some sort of belief in the message of the sticker to be willing to put it on your vehicle. You can learn a lot about someone, just sitting in traffic and reading the back of their car, and after running out of stickers staring at the back of their head and wondering who they are until you realize you’re being creepy. It always feels a little lonely when a car doesn’t have a sticker of some sort, like things are a little blander than they needed to be, is this person just boring? Do they believe in anything other than the Kelley Blue Book?

We decided to photograph bumper stickers around the LBCC parking lots, as a way of silently polling the LBCC community for it’s political views, affiliations, and senses of humor. And boy did we get some good ones, along with quite a few questionable ones that just make you go “huh?” Keep in mind that the bumper stickers on our cover do not necessarily represent the views of The Commuter, its staff, or LBCC, or anyone else except the owner of the car that cared enough to put one on.

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