Don't Mess with Texas

The phrase "Don't Mess with Texas" is prominently shown on road signs on major highways, television, radio and in print advertisements.

[5] The ad involved the CAF's Boeing B-17 "Sentimental Journey" pursuing and retaliating against a truck from which trash was thrown.

In 1985 the TxDOT asked Mike Blair and Tim McClure of GSD&M to create a slogan for an anti-littering campaign.

Emanuella Grinberg of CNN said that McClure had "an eleventh hour 'aha' moment" when, after looking at the trash, he recalled his mother telling him that his room was messy.

If not for the vision of Don Clark, the then Director of Travel and Information Division of the Texas Highway Department, the slogan would have never been used.

After the first televised ad with Stevie Ray Vaughan aired, Clark jokes that he went to work the next day and was unsure if he would be fired.

[6] Due to the budget cuts of the Great Recession, TxDOT has expanded the use of the licence to sell "Don't Mess With Texas" related souvenirs in "state run rest areas, and travel information centers" in order to fill in its budget gaps.

[9] As of 2023, the San Antonio, Texas-based advertising agency, GDC Marketing & Ideation manages the "Don't mess with Texas" brand.