Sometimes trends vanish into obscurity. Other times trends explode into ubiquity.

Ubiquitous is a good way to describe yellow rubber LIVESTRONG wristbands in summer 2004. They were — are — everywhere.

The bracelets are being sold by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research. Cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong gave the bracelet worldwide visibility by wearing one as he won his unprecedented sixth consecutive Tour de France title.

Now everyone else is wearing one. University of Wisconsin business professor Arora Neeraj said all the moms at his kids’ swimming pool are wearing the bracelets and thinks their success is tied to prominence of the cause.

Longtime cycling fan and cancer survivor Sen. John Kerry wore the bracelet while following the Tour from a campaign bus, and was wearing his wristband while accepting the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Every other athlete at the Olympic Games in Athens is wearing one.

Look — that girl right there is wearing one.

“Everybody I know has somebody who has been affected by cancer,” Neeraj said. “If it were for an obscure cause you might not have the same kind of response, but everyone can relate to this.”

UW sophomore Brett Donnelly’s grandmother was diagnosed with cancer just as the wristbands were released. Donnelly bought a 10-pack of the bracelets and donated money to the Foundation.

“The success of the bracelets definitely has to do with its spokesperson,” Neeraj said. “Here is this hero of our generation who himself went through [cancer] and conquered it and now is arguably the greatest athlete ever.”

Neeraj said other cancer survivors identify with Armstrong’s struggle and not just his prominence as an athlete, suggesting Michael Jordan could not solicit the same response on the cancer issue.

The bracelets are stamped with the word “LIVESTRONG” and are the bright yellow color of the jersey worn by Tour de France stage leaders.

“Yellow is a really meaningful color to cancer patients and survivors,” said Michelle Milford, director of public relations for the Foundation. “People are really motivated when they see Lance is wearing yellow.”

The wristbands are also accessible — they retail for only $1, which goes to cancer research. They can be bought in packs of 10 or 100 on the foundation’s website.

Donnelly said even if a person decided not to make an additional donation to the foundation, “everyone can spare a dollar for a cause like this.”

Retail outlets originally carried 4 million individually packaged bracelets but sold out quickly.

“There was a time when we hoped to sell all the original 5 million we had made,” Milford said. “Now we’ve sold more than 10 million.”

President Bush was given a wristband after they sold out in retail outlets and has bracelets on backorder for his staff. Thousands of other people also have wristbands backordered.

The Foundation warehouse is shipping wristbands out at a rate of 500,000 per six-day workweek — with orders coming in much faster. Foundation workers and supporters are greatly discouraging the resale of bracelets on Internet sites. Wristbands are going for as much as $40 on EBay, with additional proceeds going to the seller and not the foundation.

Bracelets have become one of the most potent forms of self-expression, but with one serious advantage over bumper stickers, colored ribbons and slogan t-shirts. Bracelets are almost always laden with some sort of implicit message, whether it’s a Punky Brewster-style friendship bracelet or a heart tag from Tiffany’s.

“It gets people’s attention, people notice it, but it’s still classy and nice-looking,” said Mary Schantag, a researcher for the POW Network.

Schantag believes bracelets-as-message began with the POW/MIA bracelets of the 1970s, which remembered unreleased prisoners of the Vietnam War. The open-ended metal loop bracelets are still produced and Schantag said 8 to 9 million were in circulation.

“When it started it was a last ditch effort by families at a grassroots effort to bring attention to the Vietnamese government still holding prisoners of war,” Schantag said. “It started with Vietnam Vets looking to remember comrades who had fallen behind.”

Schantag takes offense to the message of POW/MIA bracelets being diluted and confused over the years as other activist groups used bracelets to draw attention to their cause.

National AIDS awareness organization Until There’s a Cure copied the POW/MIA bracelets design almost identically, replacing the name of a missing soldier with an AIDS ribbon emblem.

“Red ribbons were also originally worn to honor vets, but now can mean anything from yellow for breast cancer to striped for homeland security,” Schantag said.

Regardless of what a bracelet is meant to represent it is still a fashion accessory and that can tarnish the message of the cause with trendy-ness.

What Would Jesus Do bracelets were similarly fashionable a few years ago, but once the mainstream embraced the trend it became unclear just how fervently the wearer believed in the message. Religious leaders warned their congregations to follow the message, not the fad.

Glossy celebrities like Madonna, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan have been wearing red string bracelets after embracing kabbalah spirituality. The New York Daily News reported last October that when things became stressful on the set of a Gap Jeans commercial, Madonna called in her kabbalah advisor to sooth Missy Elliot.

“He gave me, like, the red string, and he prayed for me,” Elliot said. “The rest of the shoot was fine.”

The retail chain Target was selling the red string bracelet for $29.95 in its online Red Hot Shop until it received complaints from customers. Red strings are sold for $26 on the Kabbalah Centre’s website and is said to protect wearers from the Evil Eye.

“Evil Eye is a very powerful negative force,” the website reads. “It refers to the unfriendly stare and unkind glances we sometimes get from people around us.”

But for the latest bracelet craze, LIVESTRONG wristbands have mainly had a way of bringing together through shared experience.

“Every time I see somebody wearing one, I can relate to them,” Donnelly said. “It creates a bond between people.”