photobucket photo by ajfinaflow Tattoo Adorned Car image:41730:2::0

There is no real method to the seemingly mad craze. Its just cool. Hot rides that look like popular products such as a popular bag of chips or candy bar. It isn't advertising either, at least not at the company's expense.

Sticker cars are popping up across the country, with young men and women using the giant decals to bring attention to their rides. They can be found at car shows or on the highway and they are an urban fashion statement. Are they doing for the four-wheeled honey what the Gucci handbag did for the two-legged one? Who knows! But they are a statement, indeed.

According to nola.com, a blog centered around New Orleans life, the Warholesque wheels bring a multifaceted 10 minutes to the owners. Its free advertising for the company, but it also turns a driver of what used to be an ordinary car into an "instant celebrity".

The blurring of product endorsement and self-expression, the instant celebrity that the cars bring their drivers, the photos-turned-into-graphics: All very Andy Warhol.

Is it art? Some may think not but art is expression and for many, this is truly an expression of something.

One female driver who was interviewed had an epiphany at a fast food restaurant and decided to adorn her ride with about $900 US dollars worth of decals. Her truck resembled a big bag of chips and looked, well, cool "ranch".

Vehicle owners find products that match the base color of their car or truck and then it all flows from there.

How the fashion statement got started is not really known, although New Orleans residents say it just kind of took hold after Katrina. The total car look is fairly unique to the New Orleans area, although south Florida is another prime spot for the sticker cars. Sticker cars, however, have been around in the NASCAR circuit and many public transportation modes cover their vehicles in the sticker type decals as a means of advertisement. Even some small business owners have employed the sticker method as a unique means of advertisement but not as a fashion statement.

From cereals to candy, these cars are truly interesting to behold. Some are so unique and real that onlookers have been known to try and remove what they believed to be the real items according to another interviewee.

Similarly in Japan, the current auto craze is covering the hippest autos in anime stickers, lending a unique pimped out style. In Sweden, the gossip is that Volvo has a line of car stickers specific to its line of vehicles. Currently, these stickers are only available in Sweden.

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.