What is a Lawn Flamingo?
A lawn flamingo is a plastic pink plastic flamingo mounted on a metal stake used to add to the eye appeal of a yard.
Love them or hate them, lawn flamingos have a rather interesting history. Their origins lie with Union Products, located in Leominster, MA. In 1946, the company introduced the “Plastics for Lawn” line, which were two dimensional animals designed to adorn frontyards and backyards.
It wasn’t until 1956 that the Plastic for Lawn animals, which included a flamingo, became three dimensional. Union Products hired Don Featherstone, who had a background in classical art, as a designer to do the job. Sometime in 1957, the first plastic lawn flamingo as we know it today made its debut.
Lawn flamingos have received several prestigious awards. For example, in 1996, Don Featherstone, who was also the first person awarded to actually attend the awards ceremony, received the Ig Nobel Prize for Art. The Ig Nobel Prizes, sponsored by the publication “The Annals of Improbable Research,” have been presented yearly at Harvard University since 1991. Fellow recipients in 1996 included officials from the tobacco industry who testified before Congress that nicotine wasn’t addictive. These officials were awarded in the Medicine category.
Union Products closed its doors in 2006. In 2007, HMC International LLC bought the pink plastic lawn flamingo copyright and molds to the delight and relief of lawn flamingo lovers from around the world.
Today, you will find lawn flamingos, both vintage and new, in all of their pink plastic glory dotting the landscapes of cities and towns everywhere. This is either to the delight or the disdain of the beholder.
The lawn flamingo is perhaps one of the most iconic lawn decorations which evoke both kitsch and nostalgia, especially in the US. Along with the garden gnome, lawns spiked with flying, standing or feeding flamingos either delight or annoy others. Some love the lawn flamingo, primarily manufactured by Union Products until 2006. Their designer, Don Featherstone, hardly knew lawn flamingo designs would inspire the sale of 20 million of these flightless plastic birds. Union Products used the same molds for the lawn flamingo until it closed up shop in 2006. Before, where the average pair of these birds might cost about 15 US dollars (USD), they now may sell for a much higher amount on EBay, about 50 USD. Special designs, like the golden lawn flamingo, have fetched up to 500 USD because the birds have become sadly much more rare since Union stopped producing them. Many people have a love or hate relationship with the lawn flamingo. To some, these plastic birds, in shocking pink, look out of
