{"id":13271,"date":"2009-09-10T10:59:28","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T15:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=13271"},"modified":"2012-10-17T02:33:47","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T07:33:47","slug":"guest-post-lone-star-litter-and-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/09\/10\/guest-post-lone-star-litter-and-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: Lone Star Litter… And Values"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Montclair Socioblog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Claude<\/a> the brand consultant was consulting with me \u2013 i.e., he was picking up the cappuccino tab at Starbuck\u2019s. He was about to start teaching a course called something like \u201cCommunications and Public Affairs,\u201d and not being an academic (though he\u2019s a really good teacher), he wanted some advice on the syllabus.<\/p>\n

We finally got around to the idea that Messages about Issues had to be tailored for specific Audiences or Publics, particularly their Interests and Values. (Those capitalized words were possible major headings in the syllabus.)<\/p>\n

I immediately thought of the example of Texas and litter. How could you convince Texans to be more respectful of public places and not toss all that crap out onto the roads they drove on? The Ladybird Johnson approach \u2013 \u201cHighway Beautification\u201d?<\/p>\n

\"00_Bug\"<\/p>\n

Wrong audience. The people who were littering obviously didn\u2019t care about highway beauty.<\/p>\n

The guy you were trying to reach was Bubba, the classic red stater \u2013 fiercely individualistic, anti-government, macho. A slob, and probably proud of it. You couldn\u2019t appeal to self-interest since it\u2019s in Bubba\u2019s self-interest to chuck his garbage out the window. Even hefty fines (and they are hefty) would work only if you could catch litterers often enough \u2013 unlikely on the Texas highways.<\/p>\n

The best way in was Values. But how? \u201cDon\u2019t be a Litterbug, Keep Your Community Clean\u201d would be noo nice, too feminine or babyish, and, like \u201cPitch In\u201d too collectivist. Instead, Roy Spence and Tim McClure at the Austin ad agency GSD&M had the Texas DOT go with chauvinism \u2013 Texas chauvinism. The idea they played on was not that littering was ugly or wrong or costly, but that it hurt Texas. And thus in 1985 was born one of the most famous and effective campaigns in the history of advertising.<\/p>\n

\"00_Mess_a\"<\/p>\n

With its double meaning of \u201cmess,\u201d it captured Bubba\u2019s patriotism and pugnacity. The bumper stickers were soon everywhere. The TV ads featured famous proud Texans. One of the early ones (so early, I can\u2019t find it on YouTube) featured Too-Tall Jones and Randy White, two of the toughest dudes on the Cowboys defense, picking up roadside trash.<\/p>\n

JONES: You see the guy who threw this out the window, you tell him I got a message for him.<\/p>\n

WHITE: (picks up a beer can): I got a message for him too.<\/p>\n

OFF-CAMERA VOICE: What\u2019s that?<\/p>\n

WHITE: (Crushes the beer can with one fist). Well, I kinda need to see him to deliver it.<\/p>\n

JONES: Don\u2019t mess with Texas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Litter in Texas has been reduced by 72%, the campaign is still going strong a quarter-century later, and McLure and Spence have a book<\/a> about it. My source was Made to Stick<\/a> by the Heath Brothers (no, jazzers, not those<\/a>Heath brothers), Chip and Dan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted at Montclair Socioblog. Claude the brand consultant was consulting with me \u2013 i.e., he was picking up the cappuccino tab at Starbuck\u2019s. He was about to start teaching a course called something like \u201cCommunications and Public Affairs,\u201d and not being an academic (though he\u2019s a really good teacher), he wanted some advice on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2123,55,2087,23703,276,341],"class_list":["post-13271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-environmentnature","tag-gender","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-marketing","tag-nationalismpatriotism","tag-ruralurban"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13271"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13275,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13271\/revisions\/13275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}