Plastic flamingo

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Lawn flamingos in their natural habitat.
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Lawn flamingos in their natural habitat.

Pink plastic flamingos are one of the most famous of lawn ornaments, along with garden gnomes and other such ornamentation. The pink flamingo has become an icon of pop culture, as well as a statement. It has even spawned a lawn greeting industry where flocks of pink flamingos are installed on a victim's lawn in the dark of night. Plastic flamingos are widely considered to be the stereotypical example of lawn kitsch.

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[edit] Authenticity

Authentic flamingos always have Don Featherstone’s signature under their tails. Each has a yellow beak with a black tip and they are only sold in pairs.

Union Products, of Leominster, MA, stopped production of pink flamingos on November 1, 2006.

[edit] Pop culture references

  • The Sims - A computer or video game in which you build and decorate houses and partially control/create the Sims who live in them. The Pink Flamingo lawn ornament is cheap to buy in the game and provides protection against various calamities that can befall your Sims. In The Sims: Bustin' Out, the pink flamingo can be either viewed, or kicked.
  • Pink Flamingos - An early John Waters movie.
  • In 1996, Don Featherstone was awarded IgNobel Prize in Art for "his ornamentally evolutionary invention, the plastic pink flamingo."
  • Animal Crossing - Pink flamingos can be obtained by the player.

[edit] Documentary

The history of the pink plastic flamingo was documented in the 2006 mockumentary "The Pink Plastic Flamingo: The Ambassador of the American Lawn".

[edit] External links

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