Spanish Bull stickers on cars

owaingibby
owaingibby Posts: 240
edited June 2010 in Campaign
I see a lot of cars around with a little black bull sticker on the bodywork somewhere.
What does this mean? Am I missing something?

See typical looking sticker on the link:- http://www.spain4uk.co.uk/images/bull.gif

Or is it to indicate that the drivers are full of....

Can somebody shed light on this?
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Comments

  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Is it the model of car? I've a feeling it might be. Otherwise maybe it's just how many farm animals they've run over.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • st68
    st68 Posts: 219
    there stickers that u can buy in spain to say been on holiday there though why you would want a sticker which in some way supports the bull fight is beyond me bull fighting is f***in cruel but then some people get a kick out of cruelty :shock:
    cheesy quaver
  • LangerDan
    LangerDan Posts: 6,132
    Not bull fighting as such - its a billboard (bullboard?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_bull

    (Slightly OT but anyone remember the scene in Jamon, Jamon where the guy breaks the cojones off one of these billboards and Penelope Cruz uses it to shelter from the rain?)
    'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'
  • Stewie Griffin
    Stewie Griffin Posts: 4,330
    I always thought it meant that the driver is from Spain :P In the same way that my "Italian" mate has an I on the back of his car. He was born in Paddingtono in NW Londonio.
  • Gavin Gilbert
    Gavin Gilbert Posts: 4,019
    Stewie Griffin wrote:
    I always thought it meant that the driver is from Spain :P In the same way that my "Italian" mate has an I on the back of his car. He was born in Paddingtono in NW Londonio.

    Londra.

    Get it right :wink:
  • owaingibby
    owaingibby Posts: 240
    It's not to do with the model of car, since my next door neighbours have two different cars of different makes and models and have recently put the stickers on each! Not sure if they've been on holiday to Spain though!

    Maybe I should ask them what it's about.
  • passout
    passout Posts: 4,425
    Isn't it the symbol of a Spanish Brandy?
    'Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible' Marcel Proust.
  • idaviesmoore
    idaviesmoore Posts: 557
    I think it's a consortium of car dealerships
    'How can an opinion be bullsh1t?' High Fidelity
  • moorehen
    moorehen Posts: 95
    It represents the regional symbol of Malaga as far as I am aware. I used to live about 40k from Malaga and most people had a bull on their motor!!
  • jam1e
    jam1e Posts: 1,068
    If I remember rightly the bull symbols were used as an advertising logo by a Spanish beer brand. Originally they were placed throughout Spain in the form of huge metal silhouettes (sp?) approx 30ft high in fields etc. These have since been recognised as national landmarks and as such the bull symbol is one generally associated with Spain in general and is now found on t-shirts, car stickers etc etc.

    But I dont know why the beer company chose the bull symbol - sorry!
  • rustychisel
    rustychisel Posts: 3,444
    7 different answers so far, this is going really well. :twisted:
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  • vitesse169
    vitesse169 Posts: 422
    Hi all, just spoken with my mate The Fonz - it's the logo of Herez sherry......
  • vitesse169
    vitesse169 Posts: 422
    .......that's possibly Jerez sherry........
  • Parsnip49
    Parsnip49 Posts: 205
    LangerDan wrote:
    Not bull fighting as such - its a billboard (bullboard?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_bull

    Many answers - this is the correct one though.

    Dont know why people put the stickers on their car though - maybe they like the booze?
  • owaingibby
    owaingibby Posts: 240
    Parsnip49 wrote:
    LangerDan wrote:
    Not bull fighting as such - its a billboard (bullboard?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_bull

    Many answers - this is the correct one though.

    Dont know why people put the stickers on their car though - maybe they like the booze?

    This is it - they are all members of a sherry drinking club!
  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    jam1e wrote:
    If I remember rightly the bull symbols were used as an advertising logo by a Spanish beer brand. Originally they were placed throughout Spain in the form of huge metal silhouettes (sp?) approx 30ft high in fields etc. These have since been recognised as national landmarks and as such the bull symbol is one generally associated with Spain in general and is now found on t-shirts, car stickers etc etc.

    But I dont know why the beer company chose the bull symbol - sorry!

    What he said.

    If you ride through Spain, you occasionally come across these enormous steel bull silhouettes, propped up with scaffolding, often on a horizon. They're dead cool. I guess they've become symbolic of the country, like the Eifel Tower or leaning tower of pisa. Tourist shops are full of things with the image on them.

    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)
  • shazzz
    shazzz Posts: 1,077
    Do they signify dogging sites, and car drivers who engage in this pastime?
  • passout
    passout Posts: 4,425
    Well...it's got something to do with alcohol, I'm fairly sure but it could be one of those symbols that has been used for many different purposes. It probably does represent part of Spain I guess but has then been used in association with booze from that region. But the truth is I'm guessing!
    'Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible' Marcel Proust.
  • synchronicity
    synchronicity Posts: 1,415
    Man over here, they stick anything on to a car... and call it tuning. I call them car tattoos. :roll:
    vertebr.ae | precision braking & shifting
  • Stewie Griffin
    Stewie Griffin Posts: 4,330
    Saw a new one yesterday on a car with an Osbourne Bull on it too. It looked like rider on a Lipizzan, the horse appeared to be walking sideways (the front legs were crossed) and the rider had a "short" top hat on. It was the same size as the Osbourne Bull sticker.
  • proto
    proto Posts: 1,483
    Yes, a Spanish winery.

    I first saw these in the late sixties in Spain. Prominently displayed alongside major roads, but in those days 'Osborne' was written on them. Always amused me as that is my surname, and to the best of my knowledge have no Spanish blood in me.

    10488d1215727466-att-onevcs-bull.jpg
  • sicrow
    sicrow Posts: 791
    origionally as memories of home

    http://www.theblackbull.org/about

    i've got oscar the grouch on mine to remind me of the wife :wink:
    http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/simoncrowther
  • wildmoustache
    wildmoustache Posts: 4,010
    used extensively in Andalucia - home of the bull. the bigger the swinging nutsack the better.
  • vivelesalpes
    vivelesalpes Posts: 8
    So why would you stick a bull with big nuts on the boot of your car though
    :?:
  • Shakey J
    Shakey J Posts: 2
    Ha i was just on the bikeradar website when i decided to open up a new tab and search google about this coz its been bugging me recently...brought me straight back here! :D

    Sounds like the consensus is that people do it coz they've been to Spain, or like Spain, or both...makes sense i guess :)
  • Sudor
    Sudor Posts: 33
    Its a regional thing in Spain the Bull sort of signifies the Castilian Political/geographic centre. You may have seen some cars with a black donkey (Burro) silouette which is a recently introduced (2003`) Catalan alternative to the Bull symbol. Regional politics is strong in Spain - I've seen cars in Barcelona bearing the Bull motif with key scratches. For a few provatactive Catalunyans a picture of a donkey bonk***g a bull lets everyone know what they think of the inter regional political rivalry!
  • bobpzero
    bobpzero Posts: 1,431
    4151280420_c6520942a2_o.jpg

    whats this one about? my car got hit on the rear by a car with that sticker on the back a few months ago.
  • Porgy
    Porgy Posts: 4,525
    Parsnip49 wrote:
    LangerDan wrote:
    Not bull fighting as such - its a billboard (bullboard?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_bull

    Many answers - this is the correct one though.

    Dont know why people put the stickers on their car though - maybe they like the booze?

    I drove past one of these just up the Motorway from Malaga. I always wondered why this symbol appeared so often on car stickers - though I had made the Spanish connection - I assumed it was an unofficial symbol of Andalucia. Well, I wasn't far out.
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    pneumatic and Sudor are right - it's become a symbol of Spain, or depending on the context, the core 'Spanish' regions of Spain (in contrast to more independent-minded and culturally distinct regions like Catalunya, Galicia, etc.).
    I guess for most tourists is simply is a symbol of Spain as a whole
  • Splottboy
    Splottboy Posts: 3,695
    I've also seen a fish diagram, like the one Christians used in ancient Rome, more like an outline drawing, with the tail open, ie not joined up.
    This is usually situated on the right, near the rear lights on some cars.
    Any ideas there?

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