Strange California Billboard Scare Tactic: Don’t Move to Texas!?

SF billboard warns Californians not to move to Texas by highlighting state’s weak gun laws https://t.co/jzEhMItlQ3 pic.twitter.com/TzzBqhBJmP

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) August 26, 2022

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-—  New billboards have sprouted in San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to several online sources, including Twitter, Reddit, and the New York Post.

From the New York Post:

Mysterious new billboards are warning California residents not to move to Texas, as record numbers of residents flee the soft-on-crime Golden State for better quality of life in red states.

“The Texas Miracle died in Uvalde. Don’t move to Texas,” the billboards read, alongside a hooded figure and a crossed-out “Don’t mess with Texas” slogan.

The billboard seems to follow the trend of the anti-gun media and those who wish the population disarmed, of using mass murder to scare people into doing what the politicians want.

While mass school murders, such as those in Uvalde, Texas, are exceedingly rare, the media attempt to make them appear to be everyday occurrences.

Those who wish the population disarmed then try to tie the unpopular policy of disarming the public to safety, as if such a policy would stop mass murder incentivized by the Media.

It is unclear who is paying for the billboards, and just as unclear is what the purpose of the billboard’s message is.

According to SFGate, one billboard is on the corner of Folsom and 7th in San Francisco.

Some claim the purpose is to demonize Texas and stop the rampant flow of productive people and assets from California to Texas. Tesla and Oracle are two recent examples.  People who find freedom attractive might decide the billboard sends them a message of freedom. Others claim the purpose is to keep people who favor gun control from moving to Texas. People who had guns might be deterred from moving to Texas.

Newsweek found a professor who said the billboard was designed by an amateur because of its conflicting messages.

From Newsweek:

“This is the lowest of the low. It’s bizarre. It’s amateurish,” he said. Cabot added that typically a billboard should be understood by the reader in three seconds. He said the anti-Texas billboards are confusing and people can’t understand them quickly.

Foxpoint Media, an advertising company out of Chicago, put up the billboard.  If the billboards were meant to drive traffic to and awareness of the advertising company, they are doing an excellent job.

Opinion:

This correspondent has seen plenty of billboards with a “made you look!” message designed to sell advertising on the billboards. Perhaps this is a clever way to bring attention to Foxpoint Media. Then, again, it appears to be a win-win for both sides in the political debate.

If the billboard deters Leftists from moving to Texas and keeps them in California, then that appears effective.

The billboard uses a common theme used by those who wish the population disarmed. It seems unlikely Second Amendment supporters put it up.  One of the ways to make advertising effective is to keep it simple and repetitive. Putting up billboards praising Texas Open Carry, Constitutional Carry, and support for the Second Amendment and self-defense would be simpler and more effective.

It would not repeat a common anti-Second Amendment theme.

Those who hate guns would be less likely to move to Texas. The message would not be ambiguous.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has meteorology and mining engineering degrees and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30-year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.