![bumperDMWTTP[1]](https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/wp-content/uploads/sites/8070/2015/03/bumperDMWTTP1.jpg)
What environment do you picture when you hear the word Texas? What I am wondering exactly is what do you envision it to look like? Do you visualize the cool, high desert in the west, the lush, tropical palms in the southern valley or the heavily forested woodlands in the east? These are all biospheres indicative to Texas, but not the one where I grew up. I was raised in the hill country region, an area known for gnarled mesquite trees and unbearably hot, humid summer’s lasting 10 months of the year, and litter, lots and lots of litter.
Texas Hill Country
I was what my parents called a nature child, not a tom-boy but a free-spirit who spent every waking moment outdoors. I ran free, watching birds during the sunny afternoons and catching fireflies in the dusky evenings. Texans migrate like birds. We flock south in the summer to cool lakes or beaches to swim and north in the winter to ski. One of my favorite summer outings was to a nearby dark, cold, mossy-green lake. Being a wild-child, I hated wearing shoes but found them a necessity during outings at the olive-colored lake. At the launch, unhitching our boat, loading it with provisions for the scorching afternoon ahead, I noticed the ground paved with shiny metal, sparkling in the hazy heat waves. These silver commas were the ubiquitous soft-drink pull tab.
On the long drive home, I began to notice litter. Peering through the dusty back window from the cold, dark, recess of the back seat, I was overwhelmed by endless miles of trash blowing like lost white birds along the highway. The cobalt, vermillion and buttery yellow fields of bluebonnets and Indian blankets were obscured by bottles, paper, and plastic bags. This was the late 60’s early 70’s, and environmental concerns were in the nascent awakening of public awareness.
Roadside litter
I grew up and moved out of state in the early 80’s, and at the time had no idea Texas was considered one of the worst offenders in the U.S. regarding highway litter. The state spent over 20 million dollars each year to clean our highways. Instead of being called the “Lone Star State” our nickname was the dirtiest state. The state highway department hired Tim McClure, of GSD&M advertising, and he innovated the iconic “Don’t mess with Texas” campaign. This advertising campaign directly resulted in the reduction of litter by 72%, and the rest is history, so to speak. By the time I moved back to Texas, I had noticed a difference. Back were the pristine meadows exploding in spring with rainbows of wildflowers. How did an advertising campaign, which consisted of just four words, save the state millions of dollars annually and achieve what felt impossible only ten years earlier (McClure & Spence, 2006)?
Springtime in Texas
Tim recounts how he remembered his mother telling him as a young boy to clean up his mess (McClure & Spence, 2006). I can relate, I cannot count how many times I was admonished as a child to clean up my mess! All around the world I have had Chinese, Moroccan and Italians come up to me, find out where I am from, then delightfully exclaim, “Don’t mess with Texas!” I usually blink in disbelief at the fact this offensive, yet effective; advertising campaign is trailing me in life. I still haven’t figured out a rebuttal, but I am working on it. I wonder if Tim knew how commanding the normative social influence was he tapped into.
Normative social influence is a powerful predictor of behavior and is intricately tied to conformity. It occurs when the influence of people lead us to conform so we feel acceptance by the group. To gain this approval, we end up following the group’s beliefs (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2013). The creators of the “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign used an adversarial slogan to appeal to their target market. Then, they reinforced the desired behavior by creating commercials with social “outlaws” such as Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughn to support the behavior. Even though this outlaw style campaign conveys the descriptive norm message that everyone is littering, it is the more powerful injunctive norm that makes this type of message salient to the public inducing the change needed (Cialdini, 2003).
There are four steps to change our behavior to one of pro-environment. First we target a problem behavior to change; the ad agency identified their target audience they nicknamed “bubbas in pickup trucks” (McClure & Spence, 2006). These were the young men under the age of 25 who were throwing paper and bottles out of their pickups and deemed the crux of the problem. Next, they examined why they behaved this way. It was determined they had a sense of power and entitlement, and to act like a man meant not showing concern for the environment. Then a solution was innovated by Tim, and he targeted his audience perfectly. “Don’t mess with Texas” is aggressive and gave these young men a sense of belonging to the outlaw group. Also, it gave them a way to retain pride in themselves and where they live (Aronson et al., 2013). There have been running evaluations of the anti-litter program every two years since it first debuted, and its success is undeniable (Matthews, 2013).
I cannot honestly say I like the slogan, but neither can I deny its overwhelming effectiveness. There are numerous methods to reach people in order to affect a change. If this ad campaign reaches the awareness of “bubbas” in a way that affects a positive, social, pro-environmental change, then, well, I won’t mess with it.
Resources:
Aronson, E., Wilson, T., & Akert, R. (2013). Social psychology (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Cialdini, R. (2003). Crafting Normative Messages To Protect The Environment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(4), 105-109.
Matthews, S. (n.d.). 2013 Litter Attitudes and behaviors. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/docs/DMWT_2013_Attitudes_Behaviors_Exec_
McClure, T., & Spence, R. (2006). Don’t mess with Texas: The story behind the legend. Austin, Tex.: Idea City Press.
You have made really good use of applying normative social behavior to the ad campaign in the state of Texas. I drove through Texas once on my way to Mexico and it was like driving through a sweaty armpit, the heat and humidity was unbelievable. On the other hand, it is a beautiful state and I do remember it being very clean all the way until we got to the border city of McAllen and then crossed over into Reynosa, it literally looked like someone had upended the world’s hugest trash can into the streets.
When I read the title of this post, I thought it was going to be about how tough Texas is and how everything in Texas is bigger, I had never heard this slogan before, but I never imagined it to be an ad campaign to clean up litter. I too am not so sure I like this slogan, although it certainly seems to have been effective in this case. I feel like there is a somewhat negative connotation in appealing to the aggressive side of one’s nature to facilitate positive change. But on the other hand, in the case of a Texas “bubba” is there any other way?