Pink plastic flamingos are a common lawn ornament in the United States.
History
Union Products
The American artist Don Featherstone designed the pink lawn
flamingo in 1957, naming the first Diego. His lawn flamingo,
mass production by his employer, Union Products, of Leominster, Massachusetts, has since become an icon of
popular culture[ Published: November 2, 2006] that won him the Ig Nobel Prize for Art in 1996. It has even spawned a spoof
lawn greeting industry that installs flocks of pink flamingos on a victim's lawn in the dark of night. After the release of John Waters's 1972 movie
Pink Flamingos,
[ Published: November 1, 2006. From the Associated Press] plastic flamingos came to be the stereotypical example of lawn
kitsch.
Many imitation products have found their way onto and store shelves since then. Genuine pink flamingos made by Union Products from 1987 (the 30th anniversary of the plastic flamingo) until 2001 can be identified by the signature of Don Featherstone on the rear underside. These official flamingos were sold in pairs, one standing upright and the other with its head low to the ground, "feeding". Sometime after Featherstone's retirement in 2000, Union Products began producing birds without the signature. In December 2001, the Annals of Improbable Research (bestowers of the Ig Nobel prize) teamed up with the Museum of Bad Art to protest this omission in the form of a boycott.
HMC International LLC
HMC International LLC, a
subsidiary of Faster-Form Corporation, purchased the copyright and plastic molds of Featherstone's original plastic flamingos in 2007. HMC sub-contracted production of the flamingos to Cado Manufacturing, Inc., a
Blow molding located in Leominster, Massachusetts, who specialized in this type of production.
[ Published: May 31, 2007. From the Associated Press, on the purchase and re-production of Don Featherstone's original plastic-flamingo design.] In 2010, Cado Manufacturing purchased the copyrights and the entire Union Products product line, including the pink flamingo, from HMC.
In culture
In the media and fiction, plastic flamingos are often used as a symbol of
kitsch, bad taste and cheapness. The movie
Pink Flamingos is named after them and helped them become an icon of trash and kitsch.
In 2009, the city of Madison, Wisconsin, Common Council designated the plastic flamingo as the city's official bird.
Some homeowners associations forbid the installation of plastic flamingos and similar lawn ornaments, and will fine offending owners,
In 2024, as a political statement, some homeowners painted their pink plastic flamingoes blue, to indicate support for Harris-Walz over Trump-Vance in the Presidential election. This was reported mainly in retirement communities in the southern US, where neighborhood associations often forbid the posting of political lawn signs.
See also
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Published: October 19, 2006.
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Describes the change in design and calls for boycott.
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Published November 17, 2006 - Reflects on the shutdown of the original plastic-flamingo factory and the flamingo's impact on popular culture.
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External links
