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~Recently, I wanted to go to the sea and drove to Bang Saen. During the drive from Bangkok, while sitting as a passenger princess and occasionally acting as a DJ to keep the driver entertained, I found myself amused by the ‘cool’ literature displayed on the road: the bumper stickers. The witty quotes made me laugh out loud. The fonts, colors, and the image of a mustachioed man that I frequently saw were pretty cool.
~Behind these entertaining stickers lie cultures, beliefs, and a sense of identity that we might never have considered exploring. Today, I invite readers to take a closer look at these stickers and delve into the culture on the car bumpers during our journey to Bang Saen.
Bangna-Trat Road: Engines on wheels and the identities of the working class
Car 1, 2, 3: 'Small weenie goes first,' 'At home, my wife yells; out here, the police stops,' 'A teenager tryna build a life'
~Before I could drift off to sleep, a sudden flash of pink light caught my eye. It was the eye-catching typography sticker on the large delivery truck in front of us. It read, ‘Small weenie goes first.’ Wow! What a message! It plays well with a man's subconscious. I didn’t feel offended, but it did make me laugh and wake me up a bit.
~Bumper stickers, which we see every day, have a history spanning over 40 years. They can be considered a subculture that has been on the roads for a long time. Taveesak Pintong noted in his 1980 book ‘Varnagam Gebtok’ that these stickers originated from truck drivers using chalk or spray paint to write on the backs of their trucks. They would write amusing quotes to wake up fellow truckers who were driving behind them and to release their frustrations behind the steering wheel while trying to earn a living. These messages reflected the challenges faced by truck drivers in a money-driven society, almost like a diary for them.
~What began with chalk eventually evolved into durable, vibrant stickers. By 2012, bumper stickers became very popular, partly due to the government’s ‘First Car’ policy at the time. Their popularity spread to personal vehicles and motorcycles. This created a new ‘profession,’ where numerous shops began offering custom bumper stickers with catchy phrases, and the top name in the industry is ‘Jing - Pornchai Klaipothong,’ a renowned sticker designer who has created countless eye-catching designs.
~In the early days, bumper stickers maintained the charm of cursive handwritten fonts and often used reflective colors to interact with street lights. White or black stroke lines were added to highlight the text. However, as time passed, the old-school fonts began to look outdated. Fonts evolved to have more rounded edges and bolder designs. Gradient colors and additional cartoon graphics were added to make them more eye-catching.
~As Thai people are humorous and poetic, the content of the stickers continues to feature rhyming phrases that spark humor and bring tears of laughter. The messages can be categorized into several groups: those reflecting shared lifestyles and behaviors, or highlighting social issues, such as ‘Not a fancy car, but I have money to eat,’ ‘If you never struggled, don’t act tough,’ ‘Wife paid in cash, car on installment,’ and ‘I was born in a stupid government era.’ There are also stickers meant purely for humor, without any deeper meaning, like 'No need to chase, I can’t go any faster,' 'Eat everywhere, poop at every gas station,' or 'So glad, the car behind is also lost.'
~Another interesting category is those that declare personal identity, such as ‘A teenager tryna build a life,’ ‘Racing trucks to make a fortune,’ or ‘A gangster man trying to make a living.’ These stickers tell society that driving a truck, pickup truck, or even a fast motorcycle is not just about disturbing others but about getting through life. Despite often being portrayed negatively by the media, they are building their lives just like any other profession. These vivid, rhyming stickers are not displayed without purpose; they discreetly represent the identity of people on the fringes of society.
~Not sure if these quote stickers exist in other countries, but in Thailand, they have become a 'subculture' frequently featured in the media. This includes social media pages that collect trucker quotes with over 200K likes, or the ‘Ticker (ติ๊กเกอร์)’ app where users can download their own trucker stickers. The trend peaked in 2013, with toys in 7/11 convenience stores selling small local bus models called 'Rot Kok Moo' with bumper quote stickers, allowing people to decorate the truck with their own story. Additionally, various publications and advertisements also use these stickers, showing that the influence of this subculture is gradually merging into mainstream pop culture.
Car 4: Famous people's faces on the mudguard
~We stopped at a gas station to give the driver’s right ankle a break. Suddenly, a massive truck pulled in and parked not far from our spot. What caught my eye was a sticker of a young man with a stylish beard and a beret on the truck’s rear mudguard. I immediately recognized it as ‘Che Guevara,’ who is quite famous in Thailand from a song by the band Carabao.
~“~Che is not dead. He’s on the back of a truck, writing fun phrases. Who wants to know his story?~”
~I thought to myself, “I want to know, Uncle Aad (Carabao lead singer),” so I played the song and immediately searched for it. ‘Che Guevara’ was a young Argentine revolutionary with strong motivation who became a symbol of the working class. His rugged appearance and determined, focused eyes made many of his photographs some of the most powerful stickers for the working class or truck drivers.
~Che was born with asthma, which made it difficult for him to tolerate the pollution of large cities. His family moved to a small town called ‘Alta Gracia.’ As he reached a turning point in his life, Che decided to study medicine, partly to find a cure for his asthma. However, his medical path led him in a new direction. He set off on a motorcycle with his older friend, ‘Alberto Granado,’ to travel across Argentina and South America to study asthma. But what stayed with him from that trip was the extreme poverty caused by social inequality. His travels across South America were later depicted in the film ‘The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey.’
~That trip sparked his determination to fight against the exploitation of capitalism for the working class. Che abandoned his 'promising' medical career and started a journey to fight for his comrades, joining the Cuban revolutionary forces and becoming one of the greatest liberators of the South American people. He was eventually captured while attempting to lead a revolution in Bolivia and was executed at the age of just 39.
~The iconic photo of him wearing a beret was taken by a photographer named ‘Korda,’ and Che himself had no idea that this image would become one of the most influential pictures, reflecting the shared motivation of the working class worldwide: a refusal to submit to feudal and capitalist systems. This picture crossed continents to become a fashion statement among Thai truck drivers and has been a part of pop culture in ASEAN countries for quite some time.
Burapha Withi Expressway: Cars and Thai beliefs and faith
Car 5: This car can be any color
~Another car that caught my eye was an ordinary white sedan, likely over 10 years old, with a sticker on the lower part of the rear window reading, ‘This car is bronze.’ It made me smile because this is the quote I’ve seen for a long time. Although it’s not as popular as it was when I was a kid, it can still be spotted occasionally on the roads.
~Why do people put stickers indicating the 'actual' color of their car? From what I've heard, it comes from the legend of the 'Widow Ghost' in the northeastern region of Thailand. This legend involves a series of unexplained deaths among men in a village. Recently, there was a widow ghost incident that caused the death of over 20 men in a village in the northeastern region. Villagers began hanging red shirts and signs saying ‘No men in this house’ around their homes. The logic behind the sticker 'This car is xxx color' is somewhat similar. It serves to inform the supernatural that "This is not the car you are looking for," based on the belief that beings in the realm of the dead cannot perceive colors.
~Another story I've heard is that these stickers are used to 'ward off bad luck.' According to Thai beliefs, everyone has a color associated with their birthdate, but cars come in a limited range of colors compared to these beliefs. No one really wants to keep sticking these stickers, but it provides peace of mind and a sense of security.
~What interests me is that this belief ties into science in an unexpected way. Some people want to choose car colors that are considered auspicious for them, but these colors often have higher accident rates. For example, dark colors like black, dark red, brown, and blue are less visible at night. That's why people choose a different color and use these stickers to address their concerns. Research from Kunsan National University and Wonkwang University has confirmed that car color affects visibility. This is another reason why people use these stickers. Over time, what began as a belief has turned into a fashion trend, with car manufacturers like Chevrolet even running campaigns to sell these stickers to customers.
Car 6: Wat Tha Mai, Wat do you mean?
~“Beep, beep, beep!” Suddenly, a horn sounded from behind while our car was in the far-right lane. Looking through the side mirror, I saw a big pickup truck with stylish alloy wheels gradually speeding past us. On the rear window of this truck was a sticker saying ‘Wat Tha Mai.’ I immediately recognized it as the vehicle of the monk's apprentices, Phra Kru Palad Uthen Sirisaro, the abbot of Wat Tha Mai.
~The inspiration for the campaign to raise awareness for Wat Tha Mai came from the sticker at the marble Buddhist church of Wat Luang Phor Sothorn in Chachoengsao province. At that time, Wat Tha Mai wasn't as prominent, so they used the iconic name of the temple as a sticker, blessed it, and distributed it to their followers. The idea was to encourage mutual assistance on the road—if a vehicle had this sticker, it was known to be from the same teacher, and those belonging to the same temple should support each other. It also served as a way to inform the locals that visitors were coming to make merit and thus needed to be helped. The sticker itself has a unique gimmick: the yellow Wat Tha Mai sticker is for vehicles belonging to those who come to practice dharma, while the white Wat Tha Mai sticker is for those visiting the temple for general prayers and blessings.
~Apart from the strategy to connect followers of the same temple, Phra Samuh Jarut Apakaro (Luang Phi So), the abbot's secretary, provided further insight. He noted that the blessed stickers are a highly influential form of publicity, helping to generate revenue for both the temple and Samut Sakhon province. It can be considered one of the offline marketing strategies that reaches people of all classes. Just seeing the sticker makes us want to pull out our phones and search for the temple's name.
Truck Weigh Stations: Using creativity as a means for bribery
~After seeing these entertaining stickers for a while, it made me think about the 2023 news about 'truck bribes,' which seems related to the bumper stickers we see regularly, to the point where we don’t question their origins or functions anymore.
~I later learned that some stickers are not just for identity or cultural expression but are used in a dubious way to help smuggle overweight cargo through checkpoints or to bypass restricted times easily. These bribery stickers feature different symbols or images depending on their function, such as a smiling sun, a rabbit, fruits, Kung Fu Panda, Shin-chan, Doraemon, Thai and English letters, and many more. Each sticker indicates the specific area, details on who needs to be paid, and where it can be used.
~It’s not surprising that simple stickers can become symbols of corruption for personal gain. This exploitation of creativity and finding loopholes to take advantage of others can occur with everything around us. The key is to recognize when these practices are subtly happening behind the scenes and how we can stop them.
Arrived at the sea!
~We arrived at the beach safely. Throughout this journey, we picked up new vocabulary and knowledge along the way, and we even got several funny sticker photos to share on social media. After skimming through all the photos, I am surprisingly content. There’s something enjoyable about being on the roads in Thailand. It can provide entertainment and relief from stress (or maybe add more stress, who knows). It’s like reading street literature that doesn’t cost much but offers a fun way to learn about the lifestyle, identity, and beliefs of those around us. As AI increasingly integrates into our lives, I can’t help but wonder what the future of this street literature, which has been part of Thailand for so long, will look like in 20 or 30 years.
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