Gas Station Stickers / "I Did That!"

Submission 11,827

Part of a series on Joe Biden. [View Related Entries]

About

Gas Station Stickers are stickers that have been applied to gas pumps next to the gas meter that often contain a certain political or humorous message. Starting in August 2021, a trend of applying stickers with photographs of U.S. President Joe Biden paired with the message "I Did That!" achieved prevalence in the United States as a way of commenting on the rise in fuel prices, with the trend continuing into 2022 as prices rose further due to sanctions imposed on Russian oil.

Origin

In May 2021, right-wing merchandise company Redneck Nation reportedly^[14] produced the first batch of stickers of U.S. President Joe Biden pointing paired with the message "I did that!" in Florida, meant primarily to be applied to gas station pumps to imply that Joe Biden was responsible for a rise in gas prices. The company promoted the stickers with videos on TikTok, with other companies later also starting to produce the stickers.

On August 18th, 2021, alt-right political activist Jack Posobiec tweeted^[15] a photograph of "I did that" sticker applied to a gas pump in Pennsylvania. The post gained over 1,800 retweets and 9,400 likes.

In late August 2021, stickers of U.S. President Joe Biden pointing paired with the message "I did that!" were filmed and photographed at multiple gas stations across the United States. On August 23rd and 25th, TikTokers^[1]^[2] @strykernick and @blacklablco posted videos of themselves applying stickers next to gas meters (shown below, left and right).

Spread

Starting in September 2021, multiple videos showing "I Did That" stickers were uploaded to TikTok, including videos of applying stickers and removing them. For example, on October 11th, 2021, TikToker^[3] @talburt2121 uploaded a video of himself applying the stickers next to price tags at a supermarket, with the video gaining over 175,000 likes in five months. On October 17th, TikToker^[4] hetrick_adison uploaded a video of herself applying the sticker at a gas station in Ohio, with the video gaining over 133,000 likes (shown below, center). On November 12th, TikToker^[5] thelaguyinphoenix uploaded a video of removing the sticker from a gas pump. The post received over 1,400 likes (shown below, right).

On October 31st, 2021, Heavy^[6] reported on the trend, with multiple TikTok videos of the stickers included in the article.

On January 6th, 2022, TikToker^[7] @oreo_cookie_pupper posted a video in which applied a furry sticker to the gas pump and moved a "Biden Did That!" sticker so that it pointed at it. The video received over 20,400 likes in four months (shown below, left). On January 7th, 2022, @oreo_cookie_pupper shared^[14] a photograph showing that another person added another sticker to the gas pump (shown below, center). On January 8th, Twitter^[8] user @peak_transit shared the photograph, with the post garnering over 1,100 retweets and 13,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

The sticker trend experienced a surge in prevalence in early March 2022 after oil sanctions were applied against Russia over its war with Ukraine, which contributed to a rise in oil prices in the United States. On March 12th, 2022, New York Post^[9] reported on the trend, with the tweet^[10] linking the article gaining over 1,800 retweets and 10,900 likes in one month.

On March 31st, 2022, Facebook^[11] user Aaron Philips shared three videos of a person getting arrested after arguing with a gas pump clerk who caught him applying the stickers.

In early April 2022, as the arrest story was reported on by the media, it became a subject of viral discussions on Twitter.^[12]^[13]