Birds without irony?

“The reason I called it Pink Flamingos was because the movie was so outrageous that we wanted to have a very normal title that wasn’t exploitative. The only people who had [flamingos in their garden] had them for real, without irony. My movie wrecked that.” - John Waters





Sad news. The creator of possibly the most influential piece of plastic in cultural history, that epitome of kitsch, the plastic pink flamingo garden ornament - Don Featherstone has died.

From Improbable Research website:

Don created the flamingo when he was freshly graduated from art school, and newly employed at a plastics factory. One of his first assignments was to create three-dimensional plastic lawn ornaments (up to that time, most plastic lawn ornaments were more or less flat). The flamingo was one of his earliest efforts for the factory.

Eventually he became president of the company. After Don retired, dire things were done, by his successor, to the flamingo, triggering a worldwide protest, which eventually led to a more or less happy rallying of the forces of Good, and a restoration of the plastic pink flamingo’s status. In 2011, the flamingo attained new heights, when the Disney movie Gnomeo and Juliet featured a plastic pink lawn ornament named “Featherstone”.

RIP Mr Featherstone. I hope your headstone is appropriately shaped and coloured...