dreaminghope | The converting power of bumpers

Has anyone ever changed their opinion about an issue because of a bumper sticker?

I saw one of those cars with a thick layer of bumper stickers across the back. This one was an environmentalist vegan car (Go vegan!, Save the whales!, Save the animals! Stop "sport" hunting! *, etc.). Setting aside the actual content, upon seeing it, I wondered if anyone has ever read a slogan on a bumper and gone: "Oh my God! I never thought of it that way!"

Perhaps a sport hunter in a beat-up, mud-coated pick-up truck is heading back from the woods with a cooler of freshly butchered wild game (let's pull out a whole bunch of stereotypes... or we'll just refer to my sister-in-law's boyfriend, who fits this description perfectly). While stopped in traffic, he ends up reading Stop "sport" hunting! on the back of the hybrid car in front of him. And maybe it's the power of the sarcastic quotation marks, or maybe it's the eye-catching colours, but suddenly he regrets the death of the animals he hunted and he renounces his hobby and all the parts of his lifestyle associated with it. He goes vegan and stops wearing leather.

Perhaps a young environmentalist on a bike, heading home from their socially- and environmentally-conscious work, sees a Save the whales! Collect the whole set! sticker on the back of the SUV that cuts them off. And maybe it's the witty sarcastic slogan, but suddenly he realises that he has been wasting his whole life and hasn't been making nearly as much money as he could have been. He becomes an advertising executive and buys a Hummer.

Ah, the hypothetical power of bumper stickers!

Really this is all idle wondering. I think people put bumper stickers out there to advertise who they are, not to convert anyone else.

*On a side note, I think that's the only correct use of sarcastic quotes I've ever seen in public. How many grammar geek points do I gain because that's why I noticed the stickers? Or do I lose vegetarian points for not noticing the stickers for their pro-animal stance?

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My all-time favourite bumper snicker is still the one that says "Militant Agnostic. I don't know and you don't either!"

Sometimes conversion happens through elegance of persuasion - an argument worded so wisely that it is inescapable - and sometimes through sheer weight... smoking, for example: smoking has become socially unacceptable through the snowballing effect of increasingly large numbers of people outwardly disapproving. I think bumper stickers contribute to that, if only in a small way...

I wonder how many issues have enough people on the same side to cause a general change. Smoking is a great example of that happening, but I don't know how many other issues can cut through the clutter of images and advertising we are bombarded with to effectively sway people. Maybe it just takes a long time to see results.

I definitely think you have a valid point about bumper stickers becoming part of a larger message. I wonder if the messages are canceling each other out: for every pro-hunting sticker there may very well be a vegan sticker, so there's no weight one way or the other.

On the other hand, there's often the concentration of one message in a localised community, reinforcing itself and converting locals who weren't conforming... I think that's a whole new post.

In the end, I still suspect that most people who use bumper stickers to so to advertise and reinforce their own chosen identities, and any conversion would be a bonus. But I could be wrong, not having anything to afix a sticker to.

In the end, I still suspect that most people who use bumper stickers to so to advertise and reinforce their own chosen identities, and any conversion would be a bonus.

I agree with this point of view. I have a bumper sticker for my bike that says "Satan drives an SUV." I don't expect it to convert any SUV drivers. It's mostly for my own amusement, and possibly the amusement of other cyclists. I also don't expect Satan to suddenly pick another vehicle, or for random SUV drivers to now believe that they are the Lord of Darkness. ;)

random SUV drivers to now believe that they are the Lord of Darkness

That would make for some interesting commutes.

I think your point about advertising one's identity is a valid one, too.

Another thought: the advertising of identity serves not only to draw together those of like mind, but to remind others of the presence of your identity group. This is a powerful political phenomenon: for example, it's what "outing" was all about.

...the advertising of identity serves not only to draw together those of like mind, but to remind others of the presence of your identity group.

That's where

fruitkakechevy and I ended up too! ~Points down the comment line.~

I definitely think that's an important part of the whole thing, especially for misunderstood and smaller minority groups with no public presence except for what they create for themselves.

or we'll just refer to my sister-in-law's boyfriend

So.....Heather's your sister-in-law now, eh?

:p

Heather became my sister-in-law the day that Nancy became my mother-in-law by virtue of being Nancy's daughter.

That is to say, there was a day in the middle of the renovations where I suddenly understood why jokes about mothers-in-law are funny, and on that day, Russ' family became the "in-laws".

sure sure....

:p

...I need to make a tongue-out cartoon guy....

I don't think that bumper stickers really mean to convert anyone.. what I think they do is help to normalize a way of thinking/being that isn't mainstream. One bumpersticker wouldn't do it, I think, but what if someone kept seeing bumper stickers that were radically different to her worldview.. wouldn't that differing point of view seem a little less insane simply because many people were actively showing that they shared it?

What a neat way of seeing it! I agree that with your proposed possible results. I suspect that most people aren't consciously seeking that result so much as asserting their own identity, but I definitely think it's true that those with non-mainstream identities are the ones that feel it necessary to assert them, at least in part to combat negative stereotypes.

Now my mind is rambling at me about "outing" in the GLBT community and about pride as part of the identity of minority groups. This stuff is so interesting! If I ever go back to school, I simply must fit in some sociology classes next time.

EeeEE! Me too. I keep looking for an SFU job that gives me enough time for a day class.. There are so many things (sociology, human geography, WS, biology!) that I skipped in order to get my degree finished.

I think about the "Sorry I couldn't come to church, I was busy practicing witchcraft and becoming a lesbian." bumpersticker.. I think that part of it is ridiculing stereotypes, too. Or maybe that idea isn't ridiculous to some people?! Who knows what lurks in the mind of Jerry Falwell and his ilk..

Maybe people are asserting their own individuality for it's own sake, or maybe they're doing it in order to give other people the courage to do something a little less normal (ie, bring their own bag to the grocery store?) by making the abnormal a little less strange. I think that this works with pride, and "outing" too.

(Wohoo! A concrete reason to let my freakishnesses show even more!)

A concrete reason to let my freakishnesses show even more!

We should take every excuse we can!

By the way, I like your new icon - I can't stop watching it!

Thanks! It's from Princess Mononoke, which is one of my favourite anime EVAR! If you haven't seen it, I forsee a movie night in your future.. ~~mystical finger wiggles~~

I keep looking for an SFU job that gives me enough time for a day class.. There are so many things (sociology, human geography, WS, biology!) that I skipped in order to get my degree finished.

Random comment-thread hijack:

Human geography is the shiz-nat. :>

Hey, hijacker! This thread is a week old! That's, like, a million years in LJ time. :)

Human geography, huh? Didn't get a chance to take any of those courses either.

YES! I took a class at Douglas, and I want to get further in to it. I did a photography project that looked at the different kinds of houses (hice!) we live in. Super-interesting.

Are you doing a class in HG now?

The converting power of bumpers

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