June 2019
Intermediate to advanced
232 pages
5h 24m
English
In the 1980s, Texas had a litter problem. Highways were strewn with trash, garbage cans were ignored, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) was spending $20 million a year to clean it all up.
The state tried to fight the trash problem with laws, warning signs, brochures, and marketing ploys, but for years nothing worked. They simply hadn’t found the right message.
Then, in 1985, TxDOT asked a marketing firm how they would combat the problem. The clever firm conceived a broad campaign around a single, simple phrase: “Don’t Mess With Texas.” The words soon became a sort of unofficial state slogan—and one of the most successful advertising taglines ...