Custom Bumper Stickers Turn 62 Years Old

It was 1947 and World War II had ended, American business owners were getting back to work in a peacetime market.  Forest Gill had an idea – to combine two wartime technologies, self-sticking paper and fluorescent ink, into a sticker. His idea was simple and he thought people would put these stickers on their automobiles.  It was at that point that the Custom Bumper Sticker was born, and for 62 years the Gill-Line bumper sticker has evolved to become a great American made marketing icon.

In the 1950’s the original self-sticking bumper stickers were simple and straight forward.  The fluorescent inks grabbed people’s attention and became a leading product for political campaigns.

The 1960’s brought in the use of vinyl, replacing the paper.  The vinyl bumper sticker was easier to remove, peeling off in one piece compared to needing a razor blade to remove the paper version.

In the 1980’s Gill Studios (Gill-Line) introduced UV cured inks, these amazingly vibrant glossy inks looked much better and were more durable and were much better for the environment.

2009 brings us to a new generation of advanced technology introducing the Full Color Custom Bumper Sticker.  Forest Gill’s inventive idea has come a long way in the past 62 years making bumper stickers a consistent marketing tool that now offers high quality graphics in full color

As a distributor for the Gill-Line we at Bizarre Promotions are excited about their new line of full color bumpers stickers.

Marketing using Bumper Stickers

Bumper stickers are a high exposure, low-cost way of marketing your business, event or cause for just pennies on the dollar.  Bumper stickers are often used to communicate political messages or brag about your kid being on the honor roll. They are also used to create an element of suspense and surprise and make statements on a person’s thoughts or views in regards to a specific topic.

Driving through traffic is not very exciting for the most part, but reading bumper stickers with funny messages, reduce the boredom of being stuck in traffic.  When someone sees a funny or cool bumper sticker they are encouraged to look around for more bumper stickers. A bumper sticker on a single car could easily be read by thousands of people in just a matter of months.

Bumper stickers can also create brand awareness for products which aren’t well positioned in their market. With the right message and graphics this can be achieved in a short amount of time for very little money. When designing a sticker it should be noted that humor grabs the maximum attention. More and more businesses are beginning to take advantage of the low cost effectiveness of marketing with bumper stickers.

Tim Somers
Bizarre Promotions, Inc.