Sticking it to My Family

I find the whole concept of My Family stickers - now spreading like obnoxious planter warts across the back windscreens of vehicles Australia-wide - fairly repulsive. Mostly because I question the need to so openly advertise one's familial make-up to potential thieves and child sex offenders.

Having said that - hot DAMN I wish I'd invented the idea.

Let me explain.

For the uninitiated, the My Family stickers allow you to distill the complex and varied personalities of your family members into "humourous" stick figure stickers, which you group together on the back of your Rav4, Territory, Prado or other 4WD (for some reason, they're particularly popular on 4WDs). Fellow motorists will enjoy a reprieve from traffic as they get the line-drawing lowdown on pot-bellied BBQ fan Dad, bookworm Mum, the teenage daughter who wants to be a pop star, and the younger son who just can't get enough of skateboards. There are also options for grandparents, babies, pets, and somewhat bizarrely, angels (I don't like to think too much about that one).

I'm actually quite wary of slagging the trend off too much. I actually value the sentiment behind it - being proud of one's family. I really do believe that's a wonderful thing. And I suspect that it may be kids driving the demand for the stickers moreso than parents/drivers - after all, could anybody love stickers more than kids?


Possibly this man.

I've also been pleased that they haven't been totally homogenised by "ideal" nuclear families; combinations I've seen include a single-parent family, and what could only be considered a "Crazy Cat Lady" module (one woman, six cat stickers).

But still, there's just something about it that's just... you know... weird. Like somebody buying you the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food DVD boxset. You appreciate it's a nice thing, but that doesn't make it necessary.

And making a non-necessity a must-have is the true genius of My Family. People are laying out $4 a pop for these stickers; an amount that is small enough to be inoffensive to the average family budget, but collectively means a massive CHA-CHING for the people behind this blasted concept.

I want to have an idea like that. Ben Elton, in his play Gasping, calls it a "Pot Noodle": a product that nobody realised they wanted/needed until it was invented. Something out of nothing. The My Family stickers are a perfect example of this.

The only Pot Noodle idea I've had so far is for a mobile phone application that lets you know which hair salons in your local area have spaces free for walk-in appointments. This followed my experience yesterday of going to five different salons before finding one able to give my unruly mane a chop. I figure for shiftworkers or people who find it hard to book ahead for hair and beauty services, it could be handy. But perhaps something like that already exists. Perhaps it's a completely stupid idea.

But then, if you'd asked me whether charging $4 for a stick figure sticker was a good idea, I would've both laughed in AND slapped your face.

Does anybody else have a Pot Noodle idea? Perhaps you could cut me in for 20%...