You see them all the time. Right to life bumper stickers, Right to choice bumper stickers. Fish. My god can beat up your god variants. All these pro-this and anti-that bumper stickers.
Have you, at any time, ever said, “You know, that’s right. I’ve never thought of it that way. I think I’ll change my opinion”.
So, has a bumper sticker ever changed your mind on a topic?
For me? Nope.
Yeah, the topic of “should I let this person cut in front of me?”
If I see a bumper sticker I don’t agree with, it changes my answer to “no.”
It’s just another form of advertising. Kind of like watching a hockey game and seeing a Subway banner on the boards. Am I likely to run out and buy a Subway sandwich at that moment? No, but it’s death by a thousand cuts. Advertising apparently does in fact work.
I don’t think I’ve ever changed my mind about anything due to a bumper sticker. Most are really inane; some are damned funny though.
I brake for hallucinations.
I brake for Jayne Mansfield’s head.
I owe, I owe. It’s off to work I go.
My other car is a piece of shit too!
The only way a bumper sticker can change my mind is if it’s hitting me in the forehead while it is attached to a car. Then my mind gets changed to guava jelly.
Otherwise, nope. BS just tell me that:
Any time I see a bumpesticker, my respect for the person who owns the car goes down just a little bit. Doesn’t matter what it’s a sticker for. Could be something I agree with, could be something I disagree with, could be something I don’t care about one way or t’other. Bumperstickers are lame by definition.
Agreed. The only way a bumper sticker has ever changed my mind is when it makes me think “Wow, I used to have respect for people who held that opinion; now I don’t.”
Heh. Now I’m considering putting one on my car: “GENERALIZATIONS ON BUMPER STICKERS ARE STUPID.”
Heh, I used to have a lot of bumper stickers on my old car. Mind you, this car was a POS, and the trunk was all dented in, so I figured nothing could make it look worse.
I never had any political slogans on mine, however. The onyl one even remotely controversial I ever had said
“LOST YOUR CAT?
TRY LOOKING UNDER…
MY TIRES.”
And I got a death threat letter slipped under my wiper one day. :rolleyes:
Otherwise they were short, pithy, oft funny statements. I had:
“Visualize…
using your turn signal.”
Which really reminded ME to use my turn signal 100% of the time, so it worked well.
But, no, no one else’s has ever changed my mind. I particularly hate the ones about abortion. Yeah, you might be able to sum up such a complicated issue in one line, but I can’t.
I’ve always wanted to make one that said “Nobody’s mind was ever changed by a bumper sticker.”
But then, someone would see it, realize that it was right, and then it wouldn’t be anymore.
Screw the bumper stickers, I’m seriously considering putting:
No no, don’t signal.
I’m keen to guess.
In big friggin’ letters on the back windshield of my Toyota Matrix.
The purpose of a bumper sticker is not to change other people’s minds about a topic but to announce your own views, and if there are others that share it, remind them that they are not alone.
In some cases, if your bumper sticker is pithy enough, it might give another of your camp that little zing to their comeback the next time someone at work plays the same old broken record about controversial topic du jour.
What, you mean like those that read MY OTHER CAR IS ALSO A PORSCHE or MY SON IS AN HONOR STUDENT AT RATVILLE SECONDARY SCHOOL?
I prefer the ones that say things like, IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU’RE TOO CLOSE (in relatively small type), or SHOULDN’T YOU BE LOOKING AT THE ROAD INSTEAD?
Or the ironic/sarcastic ones, similar to VISUALIZE USING YOUR TURN SIGNAL. I haven’t found it yet, but I’d gladly commission creating one even further in the sarcasm spectrum, reading FAKE LEFT, GO RIGHT with a graphic of a car turning from the middle lane with the wrong blinker on.
Um… guys? The “honor student” ones aren’t for the other drivers. Or for the parents. They’re for the kids.
“My mom’s so proud of my grades that she put a bumper sticker on her car! She wants to show off my achievements to everyone else!”
As for the OP: No, a bumper sticker has never changed my mind. But occasionally you run into one that presents something in an interesting light. Years ago, when I saw “STOP CONTINENTAL DRIFT” I kinda thought to myself: “Huh. Well there’s an interesting perspective on the issue.” It didn’t change my mind, but it gave me something to think about and gave me some insight on someone else’s thought process.
The best one I ever saw was “Happiness is all right in theory, I guess…”
Didn’t change my mind, but I laughed.
Does it count if I didn’t have an opinion one way or the other.
“Don’t move wood, it bugs me”
Hmmm, never thought about that. Makes sense I guess.
It changed my mind about thinking that the lady up the street has two brain cells.
She hit on almost every subject: abortion, hillary, welfare, there were more but the ignorance was killing my own brain cells. Made me wish I was a kid with some eggs on Halloween.
Stop Contintental Drift is a joke–not a POV.
Don’t move wood, it bugs me is all about trying to prevent insect infestations throughout the country. I am not sure, but it might be the Asian beetle or some such that they are trying to contain. Moving firewood from one region (even within a county) to another is enough for the infestation to spread. (heard on NPR last fall, sorry, no more details).
I have seen a few bumper stickers I thought were fun or cool. Can’t remember most of them.
I liked “life is not a dress rehearsal” which did give 19 year old me pause.
I also like the one that says, “Love your mother” with a picture of planet Earth on it.
I’ve never put a bumper sticker on any of my cars (my Volvo does have a Colbert Nation rear windshield sticker). I like to read other car’s stickers. The ones I rolled my eyes at are the ones that have about 10 stickers on, all attempting to be amusing.
Or the ones that want to admonish me: “move to the right for sirens and lights” No shit. Or “Click it or ticket” etc. That tells me the guy in the car is NOT a cop off duty, but a tool who will go 5 miles under the limit, just to make sure you don’t/can’t pass him.
Um… do you actually think that any kid cares about those bumper stickers? If they’re targeted at pleasing the ones who got the grades, they’re not getting anywhere.
Changed my mind? No, except in the sense that ZipperJJ said. Recently the ones with Bush’s last day in office have made me smile.
The only bumper sticker I’ve put on a car as an adult is of Teen Girl Squad. I had to drive a complete POS for a while, and it certainly didn’t make the car look worse.
Well, no, I was referring primarily to the political ones.
Honor student bumper stickers are for the kids. Funny or “funny” bumper stickers are there because they amuse the owner of the car, and perhaps the owner was looking to amuse other people. Not because they thought others would actually begin using their turn signals (oh, if only…).