I bought a motorcycle decal to put on the car the other day. It occurred to me that this
branding exercise, this statement of loyalties, speaks volumes about a person. Sometimes
annoying volumes. Decals and bumper stickers are the automotive equivalent of tatts and
body jewelry.
Stephanie says that she would never put anything on the car. No decals, no bumper stickers, nothing at all. "My thoughts and feelings are my business", she says, and she doesn't particularly want people to share theirs with her either. As for me, I can't resist the urge to add just a little personalization to the car so I picked up a small decal for the rear window.
There are so many ways to make a statement. Take, for example, auto dealers, who add chintzy chrome colored plastic dealer logos to your trunk. When I got my station wagon, I told them I didn't want the dealer name attached to the back. The sales guy acquiesced since the car I picked had not yet been prepped but when I picked it up it had a license plate holder with their name on it. That ended up in the trash as soon as I got home. Even the state gets into the business of feeding your desire to be different. In Oregon there are four unique plate designs. Additionally you can get special plates for universities, veterans of specific wars or just plain vets, Purple Heart winners, and a variety of vocations, not to mention vanity plates (I confess to having two of those myself). Your options seem limited only by your wallet.
I'm with Stephanie about the bumper stickers but for a different reason. It gives me the shivers when I see cars that have them stuck to the paint. Oh, the agony! I have, in fact, seen some cars with literally dozens of them, automotive versions of Bradbury's, "The Illustrated Man." Truthfully, it's tough to resist creeping forward at the intersection to read the messages. Many times I just have to have a look at the driver to see if they will match my stereotypes. I imagine the ACLU would have fits over my rush hour profiling. Bush. Kerry. Hey, the election is over, get on with it. Tree huggers. Gays. Cowgirls. Groupies. NASCAR. Cartoon boys pissing on a variety of car and truck brands. Ribbons aplenty, selling faster than pet rocks in the 70's: Support the Troops, Support a Cure, POW-MIA, God Bless the USA...anything for a buck. Remember right after 9-11? All the flags were flying from windows, curiously gone now.
Back in the days of the first GTS, I occasionally sported decals on the windshield, the single piece of safety glass on the Sprite. I had one for the Four Cylinder Club of America until it disintegrated in the winter at Ft Lewis. My Borgward Isabella, a car whose sheer beauty could not possibly have been diminished by any volume of stickers, had a Bultaco sticker. In fact, pretty near all of my cars have had some sort of decal on them. I like the subtle look, although I have not always been able to achieve it. Failures are usually followed quickly by razor blade surgery.
This form of individualized automotive branding is actually very popular when you think about it. The ricers have turned it into an art, sort of. Examples abound of mundane economy cars being tricked out with an additional "R" or "S" badge, usually in red. Kanji lends a hint of secret tuning. Some cars even have a vertical list of hot tuner options down the front quarter panel. Windshield sun blockers are popular with both domestic and imports. If you include license plate brackets, I'd reckon that you would have a hard time finding many cars without some badge, sticker, decal, or custom plate.
I'm guilty. I have some form of label customization on each of my vehicles except for one. I guess I shouldn't say "my" vehicles. The only one we have with no decals, no custom plate, no sticker of any kind, is the 911. It's Stephanie's car.