0:08

Hello, welcome to another episode of dirt

0:08

nap city dead ends. Kelly, I've been having fun

0:17

people. But we talked about other types of dead

0:17

things, right?

0:23

How do we Yeah,

0:24

just dead concept dead? Dead ends, right?

0:29

Yeah, I think originally we talked about

0:29

calling this whatever happened to but I kind of

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little more descriptive and seems to fit the brand

0:37

a little better for us. But yeah, these are

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that existed maybe when we were younger or maybe

0:44

way back. We haven't tried any really old ones

0:54

third, this will be our third. I have no idea what

0:54

Alex is about to talk about. So I'm excited to see

1:03

younger or not. But

1:05

I hope you didn't. But I bet you did. I bet

1:05

you did. Like polio. The last time we talked about

1:16

demand out there, should we do 27 Set season one

1:16

season two CDs of Dirt Nap City.

1:24

Right, right. You can order it from time

1:24

life books, Time Life archives, and you'll get a

1:32

We'll send you one a month. Oh, yeah, I

1:32

think for $200 a year recurring, of course,

1:42

recurring subscriptions.

1:44

Yeah, $200 a month, you will get all of our

1:44

episodes on CD. As a matter of fact, for $200 a

1:52

format you want. I don't know

1:53

how much you think $200 is, but I'm not

1:53

going.

1:58

You're a professor. That's, that's right.

1:58

Writing senators is part of your it's a month's

2:02

worth of work for me. Today, I want to talk

2:02

about something that more of a behavior. You know,

2:12

building. We talked about old tech, but I want to

2:12

talk about a behavior that Oh,

2:18

I know what it is. spitting into spittoons

2:18

Close,

2:23

close. It is close. This is a behavior that

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when we were in our C, younger than 10 years old,

2:36

in well, I bet you Yeah, but you saw as much as I

2:36

did. And then all of a sudden, when we were

2:47

don't see it a lot. And that behavior is

2:47

littering.

2:53

Oh, yeah, that's kind of like spitting in a

2:53

spittoon or not into a spittoon. just spitting on

3:00

I remember car trips, where you would go,

3:00

you would drive along the road. And the road was

3:11

this is probably in the 1970s, mid to late 70s.

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And I've been to other countries. And some of that

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think if you were a time traveler and you went

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back 50 years, I think you would be appalled at

3:30

on the road, on the sidewalk, everywhere you

3:30

looked, I think you would be amazed on how much

3:40

is very difficult as the as the environmental

3:40

people know, you know, trying to change people's

3:53

were able to successfully reduce littering because

3:53

they turned littering into a taboo. Who is they?

4:05

called Keep America Beautiful. And that started in

4:05

1953 and one of the things that they did was start

4:18

The worst thing you can be called as a litter bug,

4:18

man, don't be a litter but yeah,

4:21

so that's on Jitterbug, and then it changed

4:21

into litter bug and

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they started on us when we were in

4:25

elementary school by by threatening that we were

4:33

in the garbage. I think that was really important

4:33

to get the elementary kids to not want to be this

4:43

Yeah. Also they had that. That Native

4:43

American guy that would cry. That's

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what I was gonna get to so 1971 They call it

4:48

the crying Indian PSA. Yes. So the guy was

4:59

uh, Italian American actor who only played Native

4:59

Americans in the movies. His name was Iron Eyes,

5:10

even did DNA testing after he died and found that

5:10

he was like 100% Sicilian. And he had no Native

5:19

like goof on Native Americans, he just, but

5:19

everywhere he went, he wore the headdress and he

5:30

Eyes, Cody. That was the end. Okay. He had he had

5:30

chosen for him for himself. But that was a very

5:42

who haven't seen it, it was this Native American

5:42

ish person who had, he'd be looking out over the

5:52

yeah, I don't know if it was a landfill, but it

5:52

was just garbage everywhere. And they'd zoom in on

6:00

from his eye, right? Like, yeah, you took our land

6:00

and your that commercial had a huge impact

6:09

behavior, you're turning it into a taboo. You're

6:09

trying to change the social norm here, right? In

6:22

with an ingenious slogan. Yeah,

6:25

I know who I actually know who came up with

6:25

that slogan. I've met this guy before Tim Buckler

6:37

M. And he came up with that slogan in 1985. And is

6:37

still probably profiting from it today.

6:43

You're exactly right. In fact, I read a

6:43

story here about Tim McClure pitching that to do

6:57

and their audience, the people that were trying to

6:57

change the behaviors that they were trying to

7:06

old males. And drivers. These will be the kind of

7:06

people they call them. Bubba's, who drove pickup

7:17

spitters. They thought it was their God given

7:17

right to litter. Right. So it was gonna be a

7:26

said, the people in the board of Keep America

7:26

Beautiful. Their average age was 107. And these

7:34

people they were trying to talk to. And he came

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up, they showed the first board that said, you

7:47

With Texas. Don't Mess With Texas. And they put

7:47

that up there. And little lady, she said, Can we

7:59

ma'am. You cannot use the line if you put please

7:59

in front of it. And they they went without the

8:10

Transportation because they wanted to put please

8:10

in front of it. And the very first ad was

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Cotton Bowl telecast. January 1 1986. Was Stevie

8:18

Ray Vaughan, sing in the eyes of Texas. And at the

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it made 26 of those commercials. In a 12 year

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spot. GSD. And M did. Like you say that was one of

8:45

And, and they found that 690 6% of Texans have

8:45

heard the phrase Don't Mess With Texas. Yeah,

8:52

it's still it's still used in I mean,

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there's so many, there's so many other means to

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litter. Now, you know, it can be about football,

9:00

it can be about

9:04

Well, that was the problem is that only 60%

9:04

of Texans knew that it was associated with litter.

9:15

George Strait. And the new version said, Don't

9:15

Mess With Texas means don't let her not as catchy.

9:24

It means please, please don't let her put

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the phrase please in there. Yeah, it's it's it's

9:35

Tim McClure at gsdm. And that was how I, I've

9:35

heard I've heard this story before, but it's a

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such a direct and powerful statement. It's short,

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it's simple. It's not rude. It's just it's kind of

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I want to taps into Texan sense of pride in

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Texas and but also Their sense of like us against

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perfect. And it's, it's just amazing that it's

10:05

only four words. And it reduced litter on Texas

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And somehow like don't mess with Vermont

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just doesn't, doesn't really well it's funny

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because other other states like New York is,

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let's pick it up. Let's pick it up your Goomba

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right let's pick up trash but let's pick up the

10:36

pace to let's get into this. And then California

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kind of goes with their don't trash it man. And

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then in, in this is international endeavor to and

11:00

Wow. You know, I gotta say, you know, don't

11:00

mess with Texas, brilliant, brilliant campaign.

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beautiful state that we live in here. Alex and I

11:12

are both in Texas is partially cleaner because of

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many children grew up with, like you said the

11:21

litterbug concept. And it was something that as we

11:33

packaging. I think in the earlier 20s 20th

11:33

century, things didn't all come in plastic blister

11:43

would not deteriorate things came in paper, or

11:43

things came in cardboard. And and you know, today

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break down.

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Do you know what the most common piece of

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litter is?

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I'm gonna say a packing peanut.

11:58

It's actually cigarette. But

12:01

really? Yeah. So my dad was he worked for

12:01

an oil company. So not really great for not

12:12

rigs and on seismic boats to search for oil in the

12:12

ocean, like North Sea, whatever. And he told me

12:21

you've heard about this big, I don't even know

12:21

where it is put this big sea of litter in the in

12:31

of that. And he said there were so many Styrofoam

12:31

things, including packing peanuts in it that

12:40

possible things because it floats and doesn't

12:40

deteriorate. It's got a half life of a billion

12:49

dinged on our on our podcast review because it

12:49

doesn't really have a half life of a billion

12:57

accuracy is not something we're super. I

12:57

mean, we want to get the spirit of this stuff.

13:05

lane. Yeah. I think the important thing, like you

13:05

were saying is that they got us young with

13:16

they turned it into a taboo. And it come to find

13:16

out I mean, littering still exist. Obviously,

13:25

sometime. But it's not because they don't care. I

13:25

think what we've learned is that it has still has

13:32

predictor of Littering is the distance to a

13:32

trashcan. That if somebody's far away from so if

13:41

will cut down, one of the other big predictors of

13:41

whether or not someone's gonna litter is if

13:49

gonna do it, then they're gonna do it as well.

13:51

You're more likely to litter if there's

13:51

litter there. They're more

13:57

I don't want to say lazy, but we're more

13:57

about convenience than we are. I don't think

14:04

that are pro littering. I think everyone wants

14:04

things. Everyone agrees that things look nicer

14:13

changing people's behavior, we know a lot more

14:13

about how to do that now than we used to. And I

14:22

sometime when you're driving on the interstate,

14:22

and you're looking around, there's virtually no

14:27

not the way it was 5040 years ago. Yeah,

14:32

that's true. It's mostly Now you just see

14:32

bits of tires that have fallen off. Right, try it

14:42

thing that I was hoping you would bring up. And

14:42

this was something it's a little little more broad

14:51

phrase? give a hoot don't

14:53

pollute. Man that was woodsy owl was

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the owl Yeah, what's the owl was programmed

14:56

for the Forest Service I think and he basically

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Yeah. Oh, shut up. Here's let's pour one out

15:05

for woodsy

15:11

woods the timber cleaner and that lady who

15:11

said please yeah, all of them deserve deserve a

15:19

right, that was another episode of dead

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ends. Bye