The ClanDonnell Mess With Texas Book Tour

I wanted a catchy slogan for my upcoming book tour through Texas. It didn’t take long for “ClanDonnell Mess With Texas Tour” to pop into my head.

We’ve all heard the “Don’t Mess with Texas” expression and it is indeed an iconic expression of Texan pride and swagger.

But what I didn’t know is that the expression was created by an Austin advertising agency, hired by the Texas Department of Transportation for an anti-littering ad campaign. And I didn’t know that these words are a registered trademark of TxDOT.

Texas, like the rest of the nation, has its share of litter and the clean-up costs big money. TxDOT (actually its predecessor agency) hired the ad agency in the 1980s to devise a new anti-litter ad campaign.

TxDOT and the ad men knew that the prior campaigns didn’t work. And they knew that the biggest offenders were young men – who the ad man called “bubbas in pickup trucks” throwing beer cans out the window. These bubbas weren’t responding to “Keep America Beautiful” or “Please Don’t Litter” campaigns.

It also dawned on the ad creators that people in Texas don’t call the stuff on the highway “litter”. The word “litter” brings a bunch of new puppies to mind. What Texans would call this stuff is a “mess”. And this led to the simple slogan “Don’t Mess With Texas”.

There is a nice article on the creation of the slogan, and interview with the creators, in a 2011 edition of Texas Monthly, entitled “Litter Did We Know”.

There’s a great Texas anti-litter commercial, now on YouTube, showing what happens if you litter in Texas. And a 16 second ad featuring Chuck Norris, Owen Wilson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Matthew McConaughey and others. Both ads were made by TxDot.

The slogan is now in the Advertising Hall of Fame! But it’s become so popular, and so identified with Texas and Texans that it is reproduced everywhere – bumper stickers, T-shirts, beer mugs, to name a few – that it is losing its association with the anti-littering campaign.

TxDOT has responded with a number of cease and desist demand letters. Even the University of Texas received a cease and desist letter for selling don’t mess with Texas t-shirts.

Could ClanDonnell be the next recipient of a cease and desist letter?

Doubt it. I don’t think TxDOT will ever find out about the tour. And I don’t see how a book tour causes any confusion in the marketplace, or further dilutes the anti-litter intent of the slogan. We’re certainly not pro-litter at Burrowing Owl Press.

I also wonder if the trademark, for “Don’t Mess With Texas” includes the shorter phrase “Mess With Texas”. Is the word “Don’t” essential for the trademarked phrase?

Anyway, we couldn’t think of a catchy substitute for “ClanDonnell Mess With Texas Tour”. So we’re going for it.

If we get a cease and desist letter, we will cease and desist. We’ll continue the book tour, but call it the “ClanDonnell Texas Book Tour”. Or perhaps the “ClanDonnell Mɇss With Texas Tour”.