Obama bumper stickers for every state

Kyle from Bumperactive sez,

I wanted to do something to graphically illustrate the way Obama is a new kind of candidate, so I've launched the "50 Ways To Vote Obama" project, where I'm designing a different Barack Bumper Sticker for each state in the Union.
I've got stickers for 18 States so published so far (with 10-or-so more on the drawing board) And I'm actively seeking suggestions from the intertoobs to complete the series by the end of July.

Link (Thanks, Kyle!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Hyde

This is cool and all, but I’m baffled as to what makes Obama a new kind of candidate. He reminds me of Kennedy more than anyone.
MightyBombjack

As a Wisconsin resident, I am thoroughly embarrassed by the ‘Obama-Favre’ with the cheesehead 08. Ugh. Seriously, not everyone in Wisconsin likes or gives a sh*t about football or Brett Favre. Some of the other states are pretty cool though.
ployntabs

caveat emptor folks.
Anonymous

I know these are meant to be cheeky and funny, but you need to consider how they’ll be perceived by people with no sense of humor (Sean Hannity, etc.).

I’m thinking in particular of the “Tejas” bumper sticker. I’m not a Texan, but I imagine Latino Texans would like it but Anglo Texans would get turned off.

Plus, can’t you see Sean Hannity expressing outrage at how Obama is running for U.S. president but with a Spanish-language bumper sticker? And then mainstream media outlets picking up on this new “controversy”? Yes it would be a stupid controversy but bad press is bad press, deserved or not.

On a separate note … as an ex-Delawarean I’m trying to think of a good DE bumper sticker but not having any luck. Maybe “First State for the First Black President”? That’s clunky but maybe there’s a way to shorten that up, or show the word “First” in black color and see if people get it.
toolbag

A new kind of candidate? Geez, c’mon folks. He represents the same interests the rest of them do. He’s young, charismatic and has a sense of humor but that doesn’t mean he’s going to represent the best interests of the American people.

If average of all American politics can be compared to margarine then at best Obama is I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. He’s nothing but margarine with a decent ad campaign. He wouldn’t be the worst president we’ve ever had but damn, what this country needs is REAL SALTED BUTTER.

It’s sad that there were a few truly different kind of candidates: Kucinich, Gravel, Paul (not that I really agreed with a lot of his ideas, but he was different). And what happened to them? They were trashed by the media and the general public as crazy loons. Pathetic.
schmod

The Arizona one is brilliant…
pentomino

I’m an Arizona resident as well, and I like the Arizona sticker. Sure, it’s not pro-Obama, but it’s also not anti-McCain. It’s sort of a resignation to the fact that whoever loses the election will remain in the Senate, for what it’s worth. I actualy don’t like the idea of a president coming from my state; it leaves us open for embarrassment.

It reminds me of those bumper stickers that say “Dan Quayle: The President We Deserve”.

I also really like our flag.

But it is sort of a puzzle, and that’s a problem it shares with all the other selections. Alabama’s and Missouri’s look particularly chaotic; they both seem to be trying two things at once.
jccalhoun

“Indiana: We’ve Gone Republican in Every Presidential Election since 1964 and So it Doesn’t Matter How I Vote!”
MrBaliHai

Kyle desperately needs to go into Obama Kl-d dtx immediately.
Paul Maurice Martin

I like it, though it may work a bit less well for people not familiar with the Virginia slogan that it plays on -

Paul – rgnlfth.cm
GASPACHO

“Obama is a new kind of candidate”

Check out therealnews.com to see how “new” Obama really is.

Americans shouldn’t let the U.S. Media form their opinions; We should research and create our own.
GregLondon

OK, the “Reelect Senator McCain” is a winner.
holtt

Virginia is for Arack kissers?
Agies

There are some good ones there, but most are fairly lame. Playing off state slogans is a good idea but most of them don’t do that.
monstrinho_do_biscoito

can i have a “UK for Barack! Give us a Vote! Americans can’t be trusted not to vote for an evil douchebag!” sticker?

it’s not very snappy i admit, you might need to write it quite small to fit it all on.
eustace

They are all pretty over-the-top, but the Arizona one make me giggle like girl.
Svenski

“Obama is a new kind of candidate”?

The last I heard he was a politician and that kind of scum has been around for at least a couple thousand years.
Antiglobalism

Obama is a puppet of the oligarchs in America.
eustace

Gee, Svenski, you sound tired and cynical. May I refer you to the puppy, kitten, and duckie chasers available further down the page?
Talia

Yeah, I agree about the Arizona one. That’s clever. it took me a minute.

Also, the “all politicians are scum” belief is the exact thing that Obama is hoping to buck.

Trust me up until this year I was right with you on that.
toolbag

jamesgyre,

So you expect me to support the (slightly) lesser of two evils for the sake of….who? Convicted felons? People too lazy to vote? Canadians? Other non-Americans? Oh wait, I know, you want me to do it for the sake of all the democrats and republicans that are too terrified of REAL change to ever vote for anyone even remotely different.

Screw that, I’d rather write in someone who doesn’t have a chance of winning. At least my conscience is clear when in 2016 we’re all going through this again, wondering which candidate is telling the truth when they hint at bringing the troops home from Iraq.

(happy b’day america!)
KyleTexas

This Kyle is the submitter, (Kyle from Bumperactive). I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who are sending in awesome concepts for further states — so many, that I won’t be able to reply to them until later this evening. Please do keep ‘em coming!
JeffersonJ

That’s nice and all, but no other design can beat the current Obama bumper stickers in Alabama seen here:

http://bp3.blogger.com/_sQnaErAGU1w/R6fmws-0YtI/AAAAAAAAABU/JKAhYiVBaro/s200/Alobama08sm.jpg
trimeta

I love how Florida isn’t mentioned either in the “States So Far” group or the “States To Go” group. I guess Democrats really don’t care about us after all. At least Michigan is listed in the “States To Go” category…
Bruce Arthurs

Hmmph. My reaction to the Arizona sticker wasn’t as enthusiastic as others upcomments are reporting. Actually, mine was a negative response.

Why? Because it wasn’t a pro-Obama sticker, but an anti-McCain one.

The old adage: “Any publicity is good publicity”? I think that applies here. The message/joke is too subtle for a bumper sticker.

A bumper sticker usually only has a few seconds to make its point. What a person driving by this particular sticker would NOT see is the (implied) message “Don’t elect this jerk President, for god’s sake!“.

What they WOULD see, driving by, is “Senator John McCain”. Response: “John McCain, John McCain… oh yeah, the guy running for President.”

The Arizona sticker gives people a reason to remember John McCain. To catch the joke, you have to look (not just glance) at the sticker, and think about it. Overall, the sticker increases McCain’s name recognition more than it says anything against his candidacy.

Being an Arizona resident, I disappointed. Any possibility of replacing it with something pro-Barack instead? (I almost wish I lived in New Hampshire, just so I could buy the bumper sticker.)
Grza

Oligarchs make the best puppeteers.
paulm

I still hope he chooses Hillary as VP for the “Rodham-Hussein” bumpersticker.
jetsetsc

“Obama is a new kind of candidate”?

Well, he is black, which is the new, uh, black.
Colonist

The colonists of Washington, DC are currently excluded from this bumper sticker campaign. The residents of the nation’s capital might be second-class citizens denied representation in Congress, but they’ll be voting for Obama. Truthfully, if Obama really wanted to “bring change to Washington” he’d help enfranchise the 550,000 colonists who will be his neighbors.
Rodney

Some of those are really funny. I was a little disappointed by the Washington state one, though.
clueless in brooklyn

The bumperstickers are kind of cheesy. The Arizona one is funny, though.

Uh.. if you really don’t think that there isn’t anything “new” about Obama, let me know who the other black presidential candidates were in the past that I forgot about?

I’m sorry, but having a black president of america is an amazing possibility unlike anything close that has happened in american politics, and although that may not be enough of “change” for you, it would be an incredible thing for me.
mappo

The stickers need more Obama promotion and less bumperactive.com promotion. Seriously, reduce that font size.
badc0ffee

That heart looks like a butt. Anyone else see “Virginia is for ASSCRACK”?
colonel gentleman

“I love how Florida isn’t mentioned either in the “States So Far” group or the “States To Go” group. I guess Democrats really don’t care about us after all.”

Yup. A guy left Florida off his web page. That confirms it.
KyleTexas

#18 You make some great points. My personal theory on bumper stickers — born out from no scientific evidence whatsoever, just having a bumper sticker site — is that the impact of a sticker is inversely proportional to the number of people who get it.

So yes, you may be right, most people who see the sticker in passing will think of it as a pro-McCain sticker, but to them it will be “just another McCain sticker” Where as the people who do manage to “get it”, it will really resonate with them, and they’ll tell other people about the sort of subtlely subversive sticker they saw. Part of the broadcasting power of a sticker, after all, isn’t just it’s ability to be seen, but it’s ability to get people to talk about it.

#24: This is the #1 criticism of my site. The thing is, I want people to see telling other people where the sticker came from as a value-add: That way, the stickers can spread throughout the world in a viral fashion. The good memes will multiply, etc. Plus, I like the idea that the web address shows that somebody somewhere is accountable for a sticker’s message. I get a lot of email that I wouldn’t get from people who are outraged over a sticker they saw. They get a chance to vent, and I get a chance to remind them that I least I put my name on the message, instead of anonymously hijacking their consciousness. And, if we want, we can have a debate. (Although, most of the time, people write in with complaints that I personally disagree with, too, and the debate start’s with Voltaire’s “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend your right to say it….” etc.

Though, your right, in the age of ubiquitous Google, putting the site name on every sticker may be a little overkill. Still, it’s a way of saying “find us online. There’s more to this media experience than just a sticker.”

Bottom line is, there are a jillion make-a-sticker sites out there that *don’t* include their name in bold letters as part of the sticker. So everybody can get what they want.
TEKNA2007

Also, the “all politicians are scum” belief is the exact thing that Obama is hoping to buck. Trust me up until this year I was right with you on that.

I’m ready to be convinced otherwise, but I think it takes a certain kind of person to make it through the gauntlet of election to high office, and that’s the kind of person who puts winning first. The nice ones get pushed aside in favor of the ones willing to do what it takes. (A big tip o the hat to rare exceptions like former President Carter.)
jamesgyre

@toolbag #30

no matter how you spread it… obama may be soy margarine and not pure organic pasture butter, but mccain is partially hydrogenated oil with extra pesticides.

so consider supporting obama for those out there who don’t have the privilege of complaining that the candidates aren’t just so for their tastes.

at least he understands the role of art…
4Liberty

How lame.
My new bumper sticker’s gonna be the best. It says, “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Ron Paul”.
But I guess if you want to vote for a “new kind of candidate” that voted in favor of the Patriot Act and warrantless wiretapping, then those stickers would float yer boat.
eaddict

At first glance the Missouri one looks like he is running for a Bush III term. This I will pass until something better comes out…
zuzu

My new bumper sticker’s gonna be the best. It says, “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Ron Paul”.

I don’t understand why we have to build a ray gun to aim at a planet I never even heard of.
sparkzilla

You can’t really cook with “I can’t believe it’s not butter”. When the pan gets hot it just kind of turns into a mush.

Cooking aside, I wonder if any of BB’s readers have noticed that Obama has flip-flopped on more than a few major issues over the past few weeks. One would think the BB crowd would be particularly unhappy about his change of position on the wiretap bill. Or that he changed his position on campaign finance. Or that he’s not sure when he will remove troops from Iraq anymore. Kind of big issues.

I mean is that the kind of change you can believe in?
- Antinous
  
  Sparkzilla,
  
  Instead of wondering, why don’t you type ‘Obama’ into the search box and read the recent threads about his political actions? You’ll find your question answered. Oh, my bad. It wasn’t really a question, was it?
Takuan

what’s better? consistency?
“One of the reasons John McCain says he is touring Colombia and Mexico this week is to underscore the importance of the “War on Drugs.” Just as McCain wants to continue Bush’s failed policies in the “War on Terror,” he wants to continue Bush’s failed policies in the “War on Drugs” as well.”