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What happens every time there is a U. S. Presidential election? The bumper stickers come out and all of a sudden you can see what party people belong to as they pepper their vehicles and other pieces of property with bumper stickers. Bumper stickers are stickers that usually contain some sort of brief message. These stickers are usually place on the bumpers of vehicles, as the name so implies. The thought behind putting bumper stickers on the bumper of a vehicle is so that the occupants in the vehicle that is following behind on the road can read what the bumper sticker says. Most bumper stickers are no more than twelve inches long and three inches wide. There actually a lot of bumper stickers out there that many people find amusing. Some of these bumper stickers have messages that make us smile, while other bumper stickers make us want to scream. Bumper stickers are excellent at one thing above all else: evoking emotions from whoever reads them.

A Brief History

When vehicles were first manufactured, most of them didn*t have bumpers, so it would only make sense that bumper stickers would*ve been created after vehicles had bumpers. According to Wikipedia, the first Ford Model T lacked bumpers to which bumper stickers could be attached. However, in 1927, when the Ford Model A was introduced, it had bumper stickers on it. Some speculate that the first bumper sticker to ever be created was done so by a man named Forest P. Gill, who was a silkscreen printer from Kansas City.

Appearing shortly before World War II, the first *bumper stickers* were attached to the bumpers of vehicles using wires. Gill later replaced the wire attachments with his adhesive bumper stickers, which grew in popularity due to their practicality.

Bumper Stickers Today

The original idea behind bumper stickers all those years ago hasn*t changed that much. Today, bumper stickers are still used to convey messages to other drivers. Some bumper stickers are religious, some are political, some are sad, some are happy, and still others are being created with all sorts of other agendas in mind. Just because *bumper stickers* are named to go on the bumpers of vehicles, this doesn*t mean that they have to be placed on the bumpers of vehicles. Many people purchase bumper stickers and place them in the windows of their homes, on furniture, notebooks, backpacks and anything else that they can think of to stick them on.

A lot of people today place bumper stickers wherever they want to on their vehicles. Some people put them in the middle of the rear windows of their vehicles. The only thing that bumper stickers can*t do is block the view of the driver while they*re driving. So, if for example, you covered your entire rear window of your car in bumper stickers, you could get penalized for obstructing your view. Despite this minor limitation, bumper stickers stand for many things besides the simple messages that they convey to bored drivers on roadways. They are symbolic in American of our right to freedom of speech.