Don't Mess with Texas

Why it works

An anti-litter campaign that never uses the word litter. Texas was spending $20 million a year clearing rubbish from its highways, and research showed the worst offenders were young men aged 16 to 24. GSD&M's Tim McClure, noticing trash on a morning walk, remembered his mother calling his childhood bedroom a mess and realised Texans say "mess", not "litter". Bumper stickers carrying the line, with no government branding, were left at truck stops and fast-food restaurants; on New Year's Day 1986 Stevie Ray Vaughan played the launch spot during the Cotton Bowl broadcast, and viewers phoned stations asking for the "music video". It is studied as a lesson in speaking the target's language and turning a civic chore into a matter of pride: the slogan became a battle cry of Texan swagger used far beyond its original meaning. Highway litter fell 29% in the first year and 72% by 1990, and TxDOT still runs the campaign forty years on.