Saturday, April 12, 2008

Revealing Bumper Stickers – What They Say About You

WHILST INNOCENTLY driving my car along a busy highway at peak hour the other day, looking for something to distract me from the growing impatience threatening my peace, I noticed a utility truck in the lane to the right. It was festooned with stickers proclaiming ‘this’ and advocating ‘that’. There was something about it that drew my attention... Objective achieved! I was distracted. The truck was filthy with light brown mud all over it, and there was one sticker in particular that gave the owner up. It read, ‘Thank a farmer for your next meal.’ I thought, “Yes... I will.”
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Bumper stickers can potentially tell us so much about the person who owns or drives a vehicle can’t they? What stickers do you have on your vehicle? It’s the same as personalised license plates. They often communicate ‘a perception’ of the driver’s personality and their approach to life. I see many cars with ‘name’ plates on them nowadays; the driver obviously seeks for all and sundry to know their name. Cars, like houses, boats, and vans can be a way of showing your character off, to exhibit your ‘style.’ The stickers, badges, plates, and other devices we put on our cars communicate all sorts of things to all sorts of people, and not always what we’d expect.
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Here are some further considerations:
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~~ If you have a Christian “fish” on your car or any other spiritual sign, people will link your driving behaviour to your faith… food for thought?
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~~ Do you have revealing information on your car that perhaps could compromise your security, for instance, names or phone numbers?
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~~ If you have values-promoting stickers or badges on your vehicle such as for safety or environment advocacy, people will expect you, your vehicle and your behaviour to align to that ‘stated’ value.
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~~ If you have profane stickers and badges you could expect about 90 percent of road users to have a negative attitude about you, and they don’t even know you!
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~~ If you support a cause like organ donation, leukaemia research, or Alzheimer’s disease research, it pays to advertise. If you’re going to have a sticker it might as well give people information on the cause, or how to donate, or how to get involved.
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From my own experience I don’t any longer have values-promoting or spiritual stickers or decals on my car -- I think personally they put too much pressure on highly imperfect individuals to live up to. (I wouldn’t argue that my view is necessarily correct, however.)
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It’s personal choice at the end of the day; one must know nonetheless, bumper stickers communicate a world of information, and not all of the information communicated is going to be received accurately.
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© Copyright 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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