From roadside attractions to trashy distractions. Back in 1985, our Lone Star State wasn’t looking so great. With trash on the roadways becoming an unsightly and costly problem, the Texas Highway Commission gave the green light to launch an extensive public education campaign.
Research gave us a good idea of who the offenders were and how best to reach them. In simple, straightforward style, the Don’t Mess with Texas slogan was born, and we’ve been reminding Texans to keep litter in their cars ever since.
Contributing to our immediate success was a star-studded campaign trail that continues to this day. With real Texans like Los Lonely Boys, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Willie Nelson and LeAnn Rimes boldly saying they wouldn’t litter, it makes you wonder who would.
Milestones
1985
Don’t Mess with Texas is born, sponsored by the Texas Department
of Highways and Public Transportation, now the Texas Department
of Transportation (TxDOT).
TxDOT’s James R. “Bobby” Evans creates the Adopt-a-Highway program, which has since been duplicated around the world and featured on the likes of “The Simpsons” and “Seinfeld.”
The world’s first adopted highway in Tyler, Texas, is cleaned by Tyler Civitans.
1986
The campaign’s first-ever TV public service announcement (PSA)
featuring legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan debuts during the Cotton
Bowl.
1988
The first Spanish-language TV PSA airs, featuring an animated version
of Sea World’s Shamu and his Texas Tuxedo penguin sidekicks.
Jerry Jeff Walker tells Texans to watch for litter flying from their truck beds in a TV PSA called “A Pickup Truck and a Sunny Day.”
1989
Willie Nelson’s “Mamas, tell all your babies ‘Don’t
Mess with Texas’” becomes an instant campaign classic;
voted favorite Don’t Mess with Texas PSA in 1998.
1991
Several new TV PSAs air with the Confederate Air Force (now the Commemorative Air Force) and George
Foreman becoming fast favorites.
1998
New research exposes the state’s worst litterers. Dubbed Generation
Litterer or “Gen L”, the new 16- to 24-year-old target
audience likes to smoke, party, eat fast food and drive—a
lot.
We also learn that 96 percent of Texans have heard of “Don’t Mess with Texas”, but only 61 percent knows what it means. (Note to self, amp up message.)
The first Don’t Mess with Texas billboards go up, featuring cigarettes, food wrappers and beverage containers—litterers’ favorites.
www.DontMessWithTexas.org launches.
H-E-B, Coca-Cola, Sonic and other founding partners feature the Don’t Mess with Texas logo on millions of bags, packaging and advertising.
1999
The nation’s first tobacco litter TV PSA airs, featuring “Jimmy
the Butt Collector”; created and directed by Rob Bindler,
director of the Texas cult classic documentary “Hands on
a Hard Body.”
2000
Gen L favorite Matthew McConaughey hauls litterers to the state
line in a new TV PSA directed by his childhood friend, Rob Bindler.
An updated Don’t Mess with Texas logo is registered to TxDOT with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
2001
Roadside litter drops 52 percent since 1995.
Research reveals that 1.25 billion pieces of litter accumulate on Texas roadsides annually.
“If your mother were Texas, would you still litter?” is one of the questions posed to Gen L in a new collection of TV PSAs featuring loved ones assaulted with fast-food packaging and cigarette butts—the worst kinds of litter.
2002
New Spanish-language “Don’t Mess with Texas” advertising
is reinforced with, “En Texas, no se tira basura” (In
Texas, you don’t throw down trash), making its debut in a
TV PSA targeting the Hispanic Gen L audience.
2003
The campaign goes 3-D with eye-popping “It’s Take-Out,
Not Toss-Out” billboards, calling out the fast-food litter
problem with ginormous soda cups and curly fries.
The first Don’t Mess with Texas Road Tour travels 5,000 miles around the state educating Gen L about litter prevention.
2004
Don’t Mess with Texas is featured on “The Daily Show
With Jon Stewart.”
Official Don’t Mess with Texas merchandise is sold online with proceeds benefiting the campaign.
Seventeen Texas colleges and universities participate in the first Campus Cleanup.
The first Don’t Mess with Texas college scholarship is awarded.
“One billion pieces of litter. Zero good excuses” is the tagline for a new TV PSA campaign illustrating that when it comes to litter, size doesn’t matter.
2005
New Litter Force campaign superheroes encourage first-graders to
help “Blast the Trash!”
While litter has dropped 33 percent since 2001, one in two Texans still litters.
By now, 71 percent of Texans know what Don’t Mess with Texas means, compared with 62 percent in 2001.
2006
Don’t Mess with Texas returns to the Cotton Bowl with the
launch of the 20th anniversary “Real Texans Don’t Litter”
TV PSAs featuring a wealth of well-known Texans.
Exciting 20th anniversary celebrations include a 25-stop Trash and Treasure Hunt with Texas-sized prizes, including round-trip tickets on Southwest Airlines.
The Don't Mess with Texas slogan wins Advertising Week’s
2006 Walk of Fame contest. In a 400,000 vote landslide, the slogan
beats well-known slogans “Just Do It,” “Got Milk?”
and “Have it your way.”
