Stickermania, a 1983 news article by Sue Barkman
Published in the Steinbach Carillon, April 06, 1983
I have not fact-checked this 40-year-old article and the opinions of the author are entirely her own. However, I am deeply afflicted with stickermania.
Stickermania by Sue Barkman
Published in the Steinbach Carillon, April 06, 1983.
Bumper stickers have had to move over for mini-stickers. These little stickers come in every shape and form; some are scented while others carry a message. Today's generation trades stickers the way the previous generation traded baseball cards and marbles.
First it was the bumper sticker. Then it was the T-shirt message.
These two mediums of communication have served as the forum of the little people for over a decade. However, there comes a time when everything must move over to make room for the new. Bumper stickers and T-shirts have been joined by stickers.
Bumper stickers made their debut around the beginning of World War II. The first bumper stickers were self-adhesive and vinyl with florescent ink to mark military equipment. According to bumper sticker historians, the first time stickers turned out in any number of the general public was in 1952 during the Eisenhower-Stevenson presidential race.
About that time, people fell in love with their cars. Coming home from exotic places like Pikes Peak, Niagara Falls or Banff, vacationers were eager to let their neighbors know where they had been.
Later, people started feeling that no one listened to them and that the only way to get a point across was to plaster their cars or T-shirts with messages.
Most bumper stickers, T-shirts and mini-stickers say something. Many advertise or promote and essentially are moving billboards. Many of these mediums sell ideas and beliefs or reflect concerns and opinions. Some of these seen in eastern Manitoba are: The majority of us belong to some minority. Crime doesn't pay, neither does farming. Remember the alimony.
Some bumper stickers and T-shirts are strictly for laughs or entertainment. Others promote occupations with clever twists.
Nurses call the shots. Doctors are patient people. A farmer is outstanding in his field. Welders are the best arc makers since Noah. Teachers have class. If you can read this — thank a teacher. Librarians are novel lovers.
Some of the bumper stickers promote products as a whole. The most popular in Manitoba seems to be on an agricultural theme. Such as:
Have you hugged your hogs today? Keep on pluckin'. Only milk is better than love. Have a beef with me. Support the hog industry — run over a chicken.
Radio commentator Paul Harvey has been using sticker-talk to add salt and pepper to his news since 1969. Listeners from all over North America send stickers to him daily. Every few months he ships boxes of them to the University of Texas library where they are catalogued for posterity.
Some people collect bumper stickers, T-shirts and now mini-stickers as some people collect stamps and coins.
The debut of the mini-sticker came about the same time the bumper sticker did. Remember the little boxes of gold and silver stars the teacher kept for those perfect papers in class? Teachers were always armed with stars or other booklets of stickers to paste on deserving students.
Within the last two years, however, stickers have become big business.
Stickers now come in every shape and form imaginable. Vinyl, puffy, scented, coded with messages, self-sticking or the old-fashioned "licking" kind are found everywhere. A special scrapbook is even on the market for those who collect the unique stickers or trade with others the way the generation before used to trade sports cards. Some school-age kids in Steinbach report having up to 300 stickers in a collection.
Teachers are going mad trying to find new or unique stickers; parents are going crazy hiding their postage stamps. These mini-bumper stickers can be found everywhere.
Stuck to notebooks, bikes, doors, public washroom walls, school bags, jackets, behinds, phone booths, book covers and wallpaper, their messages are coming across.
Stickers that smell like something other than paper are far the most popular. They small of bubble gum, peanut butter, chocolate, fruits, florals, toothpaste, gym shoes and root beer.
Many mini-stickers carry messages like their brother, the bumper sticker, "Have a good day" being one of the more meaningless ones.
The future of Stickermania looks bright for the manufacturers of stickers. Kids are spending their allowances on them; teachers and parents buy for the kids and stationery store clerks are run ragged trying to keep "stinky stickers" in stock.
The post office should see the handwriting on the sticker in all this mania. Could they come up with a scratch-n-sniff postage stamp that will have broad appeal for the Canadian public? If so, what would they use?
The scent of Manitoba buffalo? Saskatchewan potash? Alberta Oil? Quebec maple syrup? Or the smell of baloney from Ottawa?
Canada Post can figure that one out on their own. The only problem is what kind of raise in rates would the mailing public have to endure when postage stamps evolve into stinky stickers?
Original article:
Original sticker sheets used in the article. I could not find the set of 4 (peanut butter, sandwich, muffin, circle?).
