Los Angeles has hopped onboard with specialty bumper stickers, focusing on the more out-there designs.
Originally from Kansas, curatorial scholar Jeanne Vaccaro always wanted to be a bumper sticker person. She’s collected ones from artists, musicians, and bookstores over the years but hasn’t put them on her car for fear they’ll hurt the paint.
"It's like tattoos," Vaccaro said to me in Echo Park last December. “Your mother tried to talk you out of it, saying quote ‘it will ruin my car’ unquote.”
But when she saw the scratch on her brand new silver 2020 Subaru Impreza, she opted to cover it up with a sticker. “All I want for my Bat Mitzvah is a Free Palestine,” the last two words in big playful lettering, green and red, to drive home its political statement.
That's unleashed a lot of creative waves, huh? She has more than 25 stickers on the back now. A lot so much that they wrap around the sides carrying on from vibrancy messages above the tires.
Betty Boop T-shirt and leopard print jeans on, Vaccaro says, "Next came, 'HONK IF YOU LOVE RELATIONAL AESTHETICS.’” She gestures to a simple black-and-white sticker, all done in a sans-serif font, which reads, “I’D RATHER BE CRYING TO ENYA.
The range of colors includes red and white, together with inscriptions like “I’d rather be withholding my labor.” This bumper sticker originates from a tiny press-for poetry Spiral Editions. (This has really been substituted for the original that was on her car.) Her favorite is a black sticker with white lettering that says ‘Keep Honking! I’m thinking- –about the incomparable pool scene from Paul Verhoeven’s underrated 1995 erotic drama ‘Showgirls’’” portraying the thin profile of its leading lady, one Elizabeth Berkley.
“But I have so many more that I can’t possibly fit,” she remarked.
Last August, Vaccaro left her job at the University of Kansas to curate the “Scientia Sexualis” exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. While staying briefly in the Arts District of the area, her car went on to achieve local repute.
"I have got so many pictures coming in from Instagram. A lot of my friends have seen my car, and many of them know it is mine. I think that is really cool.
Some of her bumper stickers are politically oriented, but Vaccaro said she does not expect her car to stir up any major controversy.
"I have driven from coast to coast many times without feeling any road rage or anger," Vaccaro said. Instead, she finds people smiling in her rearview mirror. "It brings me joy that I know my car is spreading happiness.
It's hard to get around LA without some snarky bumper sticker. In Echo Park, where I live, you'll see “My other car is a Spirit Halloween,” with the grim reaper mascot, “Let me merge, my dad is dead” against a sparkling bubblegum pink background and “KEEP HONKING! I’m Sitting In My Car Crying To The Cranberries 1993 Hit Single, ‘LINGER’’” in a variety of font sizes.
Cars have been carrying ads and political messages almost since they were first introduced to the public, but where did that adhesive bumper sticker come from? Just after World War II. In 1946. Forest P. Gill brought together two war legacies: sticky paper and fluorescent paint. Whatever the original message Gill used, it has long been lost in history-obscured by the success of his invention. Political organizers caught on fast to this, and in the first year that this medium was available, 1952, it was during Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential campaign that his backers flashed “I LIKE IKE” on the rear of their Cadillacs.
Thus, as a part of the pop culture bumper stickers would grow to be lasting. Over 80 years, the Gill Company has churned out millions of stickers for politicos and tourist draws. Most of these present a personal belief that might start at peace and love to a hippie and pride to a veteran. For example, in the1970s, Los Angeles rock fans had a great liking for Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer-conductor Gustav Mahler. They had inscribed ‘MAHLER GROOVES’ all over their vehicles.
( – This year the Los Angeles Philharmonic has revived the saying as an ad for a Mahler centred festival to take place this winter)
It was in 1991, and the case was Cunningham vs. State-The Supreme Court held that bumper stickers are protected by the First Amendment. Thus, vehicles represent one of the few forums for open, bold political expression in a relatively anonymous fashion.
They are short, vivid, and thoroughly bizarre-in the last few years, an upsurge has emerged in the production of bright, specific bumper stickers, centered in Los Angeles, the heart of car culture. The price: $5 to $10 each-a cheap way, then, to express oneself. Still, this latest trend is all about self-deprecating jokes and niche fandoms. There really is a bumper sticker for everyone. You can show your love for John Cage, neon art, or frogs. You'll announce that your other vehicle is a poem; drivers in another car call “don’t upset my dog” or silly goose all the way.
"It used to be all about conveying a universal message," states Claire Evans, an artist, writer, and musician best known as one half of the synth-pop duo Yacht. “Now it’s pretty much just a marker of affiliation with some kind of musical, artistic, or internet subculture.
For years, Evans has been cataloging bumper stickers in Los Angeles. He is one of the best-known experts and enthusiasts in the field. To invigorate this art form, Evans conceived a series of small stickers for use on phone cases.
A lot of funny bumper stickers one can find now play off old adages, for instance, “Keep honking, I’m ____ing” or “Lost in my own world while enjoying something unique” or “Honk if you love an eccentric hobby or pastime” or “I’d rather be [a dark reflection on life]” or “My other vehicle is a [funny alternative mode of transportation]."
Familiar templates allow people to keep refining the style and having conversations about anything and everything. Creators begin with a vague idea and then really monkey around with every word in the sentence, refining to express some singular vision they have. Indeed, certain localized establishments, such as Silverlake's lesbian dive bar The Ruby Fruit, have developed their own versions for their demographic. An example of these which can be purchased online for $5 reads: 'keep honking i'm listening to THE INDIGO GIRLS
"You should stick something to your car that’s so weird that anyone who likes it is supposed to be your friend.”
One bumper sticker that may illustrate what Evans is talking about more than any other is, “Keep Honking! I’m Listening to Alice Coltrane’s 1971 Meteoric Sensation ‘Universal Consciousness.’”
Created by Echo Park-based artist Christopher DeLoach in 2020, this yellow and black statement arguably initiated the ongoing trend of unconventional car accessories.
While working for Texino, a tech startup designing high-end camper vans, DeLoach came up with the idea for the Coltrane sticker. The company had asked for some merchandise that would go along with their vehicles. This had him thinking bumper stickers. Design incorporates simple black Arial type on a yellow background, with the size and placement varying through the phrase, inspired by a vintage pro-life bumper sticker DeLoach found in a small church in Mississippi.
DeLoach said, “The first feedback that I got was, ‘No one’s gonna understand this bumper sticker.”’ So he decided to market it on social media as “thatscoolthankyou.” The business took off in 2021, and he estimates having sold at least 3,000 Coltrane stickers, with many thousands more given away for free.
As I enter DeLoach’s garage studio in Echo Park, he’s at an old Steelcase desk, wearing a gray diamond-patterned blazer over a black collared shirt. There are several pre-addressed manila envelopes filled with stickers that go anywhere in the U.S. placed in front of him too and a picture of a young DeLoach, all the way from Brooklyn, N.Y., next to a certain well-noted Rudy Giuliani as mayor of New York. A nameplate lies right in front of the picture saying, “Christopher DeLoach. Bumper Sticker Magnate.”
Though flavored with humor, DeLoach’s creations provide one rather grim reason as to why his bumper stickers might still remain quite popular.
“We live in the harshest fact that mankind has ever been propagandized, I believe,” said DeLoach. “Branding and advertising-they’re everywhere. And this somehow creates a second, third order effect, where people just feel compelled to promote themselves in the same ways.”
After the success of the Coltrane sticker, DeLoach has produced 120 more designs. Welcoming various fandoms, they got from Pop celebrities à la Taylor Swift to fans of the shoegaze pioneers, Cocteau Twins, where else one is subjected to. Another commonly encountered sticker, often found in bars’ restrooms, is his riff on the famous interfaith “Coexist” bumper sticker from the mid-2000s. In his version, the characters of different religions combine to spell ‘Cointelpro’, the name of a confidential initiative by the FBI to sabotage revolutionary political groups.
It seems like there's a sticker for just about everyone. But if you didn’t find what you were looking for, it’s easy enough to make your own. Last week, for example, entrepreneurial engineer Catalina Elias of Wrightwood, Calif., ferretted out a suitably esoteric graphic tribute— to flugelhorn musician Chuck Mangione, with a sticker that reads “Go ahead, keep honkin! I’m listening to Chuck Mangione’s 1977 hit ‘Feels So Good.’”
Even though they have not come across each other, Elias has been influenced by the Coltrane sticker from DeLoach that she saw on Instagram. She ordered 75 stickers with the intention of selling them, never selling them, though. They started giving them away for free. It wasn't long after having a yard sale while a song blared on repeat, later unintentionally attracting a neighbor.
A guy rode by on a sweet bike, so we slapped him with a bumper sticker, and he's one of our best friends now.
Stickers helped remind psychotherapist Jack Lam of camaraderie. Like Vaccaro, Lam also put a “Honk if you’re a silly goose” sticker on their Toyota Prius to cover up a scratch, but it’s sentimental also. A friend gave it to him as a gift knowing Lam was into fowl. He bought stickers as Christmas gifts for his friends and chose phrases that would match each one’s peculiar personality.
Lam added, “It’s cute cool. Now we’ve got a shot of you, which is very nice.’”
In a world where people tend to forget about others while boxed in their cars, Evans believes seeing a sticker of similarity will remind people of the common bonds that unite.
Now and again, this very specific bumper sticker acts as a way to superhero up and reach out to somebody else.
Do you have a favorite bumper sticker? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
