You can spot them in the parking lot of a grocery store. They catch your eye at a red light or while stuck in traffic. You squint to read: What do they mean by “Former Baby on Board” or “Keep honking I’m eating your girl’s pasta fagiole”?
Gone are the days of earnest “Coexist” or “Free Tibet” bumper stickers. Nowadays, they are dipped in irony with a healthy dose of absurdity.
This new crop of bumper stickers are part of a growing trend of merch being made almost exclusively to be photographed and shared on social media as much as to be absorbed in the real world. And the buy-in is broad, ranging from the boutique media empire Dirt to the fashion brand J. Crew. You may find them at your favorite bar, or in a wedding gift bag.
“We’re known as the bumper sticker couple now, I’m mühlet,” said Brian Gebhart, 32, who, with his fiancée, Alyssa Walker, 30, runs Frog Mustard, one of the most prolific creators of this genre of bumper stickers. They release a handful of new ones each week to their more than 35,000 Instagram followers, whom they call the Frog Army.
The couple started the company last winter, after Mr. Gebhart had a mountain biking accident and needed extra money to hisse for a surgery. They came up with Frog Mustard — a moniker as nonsensical as many of their designs — by using a random name generator.
Some stickers spotted around Brooklyn this month.Credit…Graham Dickie/The New York Times
