Bob Collins
We welcome the South Dakota intentional masturbation double entendre to a permanent place in the Museum of Marketing Campaigns That Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time.
The state’s Office of Highway Safety today pulled its Don’t Jerk and Drive campaign after residents didn’t think a junior high-level joke was the way to get people to drive safer.
“The message is that we’d prefer drivers keep their cars out of the ditch and their minds out of the gutter,” Lee Axdahl, director of the office of Highway Safety, told the Argus Leader, confirming that the suggestive message didn’t happen by accident.
The message targeted young men, officials said, because they tend to be the ones who are mostly like to drive poorly.
Some marketing experts said the campaign was “brilliant.”
