# Don't Mess With Texas! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335 "2004-12-30T23:18:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/1 "2004-12-30T23:18:44Z")
What is the origin of this, and who’s messing with Texas anyway? Oklahoma? Or is it simple paranoia? I googled the saying and got 43,000 hits, most trying to sell me something. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/2 "2004-12-30T23:20:01Z")
I thought it came from an anti-litter campaign that the state of Texas started in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/3 "2004-12-30T23:25:00Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > I thought it came from an anti-litter campaign that the state of Texas started in the 1970s. Hmmm. Could be, but they say “with”, not “up”. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/4 "2004-12-30T23:28:41Z")
I grew up in Texas. The first I heard of it was with the anti-littering campaign. I don’t know when it started, but my first memories of it are from the mid 80s. [http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/](http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/) My memory serves me well. The campaign started it 1986. (See the “About Us” link). I don’t know if the phrase was in wide usage before that; I do remember that the campaign took off when it first hit the airwaves though. Seemed as though everybody had a Don’t Mess With Texas bumper sticker and such. [http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/](http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/5 "2004-12-30T23:29:50Z")
Yes, it originally comes from an ad campaign slogan started by the Texas Department of Transportation to clean up Texas highways (at the time some of the worst in the nation). The ads featured Texas celebs like Stevie Ray, the slogan was cocky and catchy, and it caught on. Litter on Texas highways supposedly decreased significantly. [http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/index.php](http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/index.php) ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/6 "2004-12-30T23:29:59Z")
Here is some background on the anti-litter campaign by the Texas Department of Transportation. It turns out that it started in the 1980s. [http://www.legalpr.com/6-14-04\_Ted\_Stevenson\_McKool\_Texas\_Lawyer.html](http://www.legalpr.com/6-14-04_Ted_Stevenson_McKool_Texas_Lawyer.html) [http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/aboutus.php](http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/aboutus.php) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/7 "2004-12-30T23:30:30Z")
Pulled this up with a google search of " ‘don’t mess with texas’ + origin" > [@](#): > > \*The origin of Don’t Mess with Texas lies within a Texas Highway Commission document issued back in 1985, when roadside litter in the Lone Star State had become an unattractive and costly problem. We’ll spare you the legal jargon of “Minute Order 82606” — but the document gave the department the power to launch an extensive public education campaign. > > Subsequently, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) chose Austin-based advertising agency GSD&M to create a statewide awareness campaign that could convince residents to put their famous Texas pride into action by keeping their trash off state highways.\* [http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/history.php](http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/history.php) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/8 "2004-12-30T23:31:31Z")
Whoa. Quadruple post. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/9 "2004-12-30T23:32:10Z")
All of which proves the point of the slogan… ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/10 "2004-12-30T23:35:01Z")
It’s pretty cool – you can watch all of their commercials back from 1986. Ahhh…memories. SRV, Willie, Mike Scott and his “split finger trashball.” ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/11 "2004-12-30T23:37:29Z")
I guess that’s it, then. Sounds like something Ladybird Johnson would be involved in. I expected it to mean something more, well, hairy-chested. There’s a guy at work with the poster on his office door. I was afraid to ask him. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/12 "2004-12-30T23:37:57Z")
IIRC, the DoT claimed a litter reduction of about half from the campaign. If true, that’s not bad at all! ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/13 "2004-12-30T23:41:23Z")
Still, though, why not “Don’t Mess Up Texas”? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/14 "2004-12-30T23:56:27Z")
While “Don’t Mess Up Texas” may be more technically accurate as to what the TxDOT would like for you to do, it lacks panache and swagger, which Texas always has a thing for. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/15 "2004-12-31T00:33:21Z")
I wouldn’t say just “technically” accurate, but out of context one would be unlikely to associate it with litter cleanup. Unless it was directed at tourists. Swagger is right. Y’all do like to swagger. 😉 I was thinking that maybe the saying was borrowed from back in the Sam Houston days. While I was in Dallas for a seminar I remarked that one of the teachers who liked to tell tall stories was “kinda funny”. Come to find out that can mean the same as “ain’t right”. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/16 "2004-12-31T05:01:28Z")
Actually, the Texas Department of Transportation has a trademark on the slogan and have decided in the last year or so to start enforcing it by stopping unauthorized T-shirts and so forth. It’s been in the news off and on where I could hear about it all the way in Yankee country. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/17 "2004-12-31T05:29:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Seemed as though everybody had a Don’t Mess With Texas bumper sticker and such. Well, that’s kinda ironic for an anti-litter campaign! ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-mess-with-texas/282335/18 "2004-12-31T20:13:47Z")
> [@Dan Norder](#): > > Actually, the Texas Department of Transportation has a trademark on the slogan and have decided in the last year or so to start enforcing it by stopping unauthorized T-shirts and so forth. It’s been in the news off and on where I could hear about it all the way in Yankee country. They must have had it all along. I don’t think you can trademark something already in generak use. In fact, I think that even if you have a trademark, once you let it into widespread use you can lose your right. Of course they do have whats-his-name (the pres.) living back there. You know, back east, in Texas. 😉