That’s a pretty strong statement I made in the title, saying that people need car stickers and decals, isn’t it? I personally don’t use them so I understand people who don’t use them and I don’t really care if you put them in your car or buy them from me. Ah… I just remembered… my wife just put an “UP” decal on our truck to support our son’s sports league.
Socioeconomic factors: Who puts these graphics on their cars?
I have not done a scientific study of the socioeconomic layers of society to determine what percentage of the population puts car graphics on their vehicles. But as a wild guess, I’d guess that 80-90% of the cars on the road have decals of some kind. Maybe more, but I think that’s a pretty safe assumption.
There are those who express political prejudice, insult particular politicians or presidents, past and present; ones that tell people where you went to school, humorous stickers; and those that tell the world which sports team(s) you support, commercial billboards advertising where you bought your car, and the list goes on.
I’ve noticed bluemen (aka rednecks) like vehicle graphic prints on really big rear windows, preferably perforated decal material that covers the entire rear window of their raised Chevy Nova or Ford truck (gotta be careful here since I have a Ford F250, but the rear window is clean). It is usually an American flag or a rebel flag. Sometimes that rear window stuff is bland and tacky on these rigs, but blue collar men (and some girls) love their big graphic car displays.
At the other end of the vehicle graphics socioeconomic spectrum are expensive cars like Mercedes, Lexus, and Ferrari. These rarely show anything, except maybe interior static decals from the Ivy League school they attended, or maybe the one their son attends. Except for a friend of mine who owns a bunch of independent Verizon stores completely decking out his Mercedes, Lexus and Ferrari with full wraps! His wife has a great sense of humor.
Then there is the environment where most of us live. The ones we put in our cars tend to vary far more than either end of the socioeconomic spectrum discussed so far. While the blue-collar workers make fun of the Lexus driver, and the Lexus driver goes to work to tell the blue-collar workers what to do for the rest of their lives, the middle class is simply trying to fit in.
Pride Factors: What Kinds of Car Stickers and Decals Americans Put on Their Cars
These image prints tell others that you are proud of your group, whatever it is. It is programmed into the human psyche to belong to a family, a church, a civic club, an alumni association, a fan club, and there are at least some of those associations in everyone’s life. Like I said in the first paragraph, we even have one now in the mini van for our son’s sports league. We belong.
Geographically, of course, most people here support the local sports teams with their bumper stickers and car decals, unless of course they’re from somewhere else. They still belong to a tribe somewhere and flaunt the graphic logos of their tribe’s sports team.
There are so many college and university vehicle decal prints downtown, that to belong downtown, you just need to have gone somewhere. Humans need to belong to a tribe. What tribe do you belong to? I bet I can tell by looking at the graphic decals on your car.
LAST UPDATE ON: December 25, 2017