You have to set “smoothing” to zero to see the actual data points.
I’m not sure I ever saw it, but from the same era, I heard of a similar bumper sticker that used the “club” symbol from a deck of cards to say “I Club Baby Seals”.
I’m sure “Nuke the gay whales” as a mainstream saying protesting the endless protesting dates from my high school era. Which was from 1972-1976 in SoCal; that leading edge of all things consciousness-raising.
I recall later in college when the “I <heart symbol> whatever” bumper stickers became a thing. A plain white sticker with black block lettering and a bright red heart shape. Suddenly every dog owner had one for their specific breed. Of course at the same time we also saw “I <heart>”: NY, LA, my kids, my Suburu, my bunny, parakeet, etc. ad nauseum. Folks were trying very hard to be individuals by all doing the same thing at once.
Anyhow, certain subversives sold white round stickers about the size of the typical bumper sticker <heart> symbol. Which contained a drawing of a large wood screw. I installed quite a few of those on cars’ stickers around my campus. Such fun.
I graduated from High School in 1976. On graduation day, my friend’s Jeep had a custom made bumper sticker that said “Nuke the Gay Whales for Jesus”. He got a lot of flack for it, but that was the point.
The Gay movement was just starting & they were brash & rude, in your face people. The Jesus people wanted to “save” you from your “wicked ways”. The Anti-Nuke folks were taking over government facilities. The environmentalists were screaming about everything under the sun going to cause the end of the world. If it wasn’t the polluted rivers & lakes, it was the killing of whales, or it was Global Cooling!
Some folks, myself included, were just fed up with all of that noise. Hell, we just wanted to be left alone to live our lives without some one preaching to us about their favorite cause.
In response to all that crap, my friend paid to have that bumper sticker made. He just wanted to rile up all of the folks who wanted to preach at us about their favorite dooms day scenario. He figured that riling them up was fair, as that was what they were trying to do to us. I can not say I wanted one for my bike, but I did like his & laughed with him at the folks who got really stirred up over a silly bumper sticker. Get a grip folks!
Or “Nuke the unborn gay baby whales”. 
Thanks.
There were lots of bumper stickers in that era subverting popular feel-good sayings, such as “Have you slugged your kid today?” (instead of “Have you hugged your kid today?”).
The origin of “I♥[whatever]” is well documented. It started with the I♥NY campaign in 1977.
Cool. Thanks. As an LA kid I never knew where/how it started. Makes sense it was a deliberate promotion that “went viral” as we now say.
My favorite subverting-the-feel-good bumper sticker nowadays is one I first saw here in Florida 30-ish years ago when I started flying down to here regularly: “
NY? I-95N!” 
It was certainly around circa 1978 or possibly earlier. At least, 1978 was when “nuke the whales” or “nuke the grey whales” made the rounds. Not forgetting the corollary “Nuke the Harpies”. I remember making a “nuke the harpies” t shirt for a high school buddy in 1978.
What the origin is, I couldn’t tell you, but it was extant in bumfuck northern California by 1978.
I agree with this … seems like the “Nuke the Whales” campaign had run it’s course by 1979 … we were into the “Jews never lost it”, “LA stinks” and “Just say mo’” bumper stickers by then …
“bumfuck northern California” … please … it’s the State of Jefferson if you don’t mind … [giggle] …
“Nuke the gay whales, for Christ’s sake” is a phrase I remember from the early 80s.
Yeah, what I said. I saw it on a tee shirt I’m sure before 1979. And as subsequent posts noted, internet tools to find historical references to stuff are limited. If it’s something in living memory, people’s memories might actually be a better way to find it. 
People’s memories are very untrustworthy when it comes to questions like this, unfortunately. I think a reference from the 70’s would be preferable to a memory about the 70’s.
“Nuke The Whales” by The Fleshapoids(1979), only released as a single. This site has a sample of the music and the full lyrics.
Not quite what the OP had in mind, but National Lampoon had a bit in 1977 about Humpback Whales afflicted with TF (terminal flatulence). The punchline was “Send a contribution to: Save The Whales before they blast themselves out of existence.”
If you want to be reminded just how untrustworthy people’s memories are, look up the SDMB thread about the so-called alternate ending to the movie Big.
Or all the different origins of “The whole nine yards”.
The Fleshapoids of San Francisco released a 45 of Nuke the Whales in the summer of 1979. The song was registered with the library of congress in Nov. of that year. It was written by Badley Newscomb. The Fleshapoids performed it starting in May of 1979. I was played on the Dr. memento radio show the same year. I have the official document from the library of congress dated Oct 2 1979. The song was performed publicly well before that. I challenge anyone to offer proof of previous publication of Nuke the Whales.
The Fleshapoids certificate of registration with The Library of Congress is dated Oct 2, 1979.
The song “Nuke the Whales” came to public attention in the spring of 1979 when the song by that name was released. It was officially registered with the Library of Congress Oct.2, 1979, but publicly performed well before that date. It was on Dr. Demento’s radio playlist about the same time.
And don’t forget to shoot the seals.