40 Fun Facts About US State Slogans

Which state has wooed tourists since 1969 with a slogan declaring that it is for lovers?

Virginia adopted the line in 1969 after its ad writers dropped earlier drafts aimed separately at history lovers, beach lovers and mountain lovers.

Which state's tough-talking 1985 slogan began life as a highway campaign against roadside litter?

Texas asked the ad agency GSD&M for an anti-litter line in 1985, and the campaign is credited with cutting litter on the state's highways by roughly 72% between 1987 and 1990.

Which state issued America's first license plate with a slogan, a 1928 plug for its best-known crop?

Idaho advertised its potatoes on the 1928 plate, and a later wording of the same boast still appears on the state's plates today.

Which comedian narrated Michigan's state tourism commercials when the campaign launched in 2006?

Tim Allen lent his voice to the ads, which drew wider attention from 2008, when the governor approved $45 million in additional funding for the campaign.

What error made Ohio redo a 2021 license plate carrying its aviation slogan on a trailing banner?

The plane flew backwards in the first design, and around 35,000 plates had been manufactured before the mistake was caught and corrected.

Which state lost a 1977 Supreme Court case to a driver who covered up its license plate motto?

New Hampshire had prosecuted George Maynard, a Jehovah's Witness who hid the motto because it clashed with his beliefs, and the justices ruled that a state cannot force drivers to display one.

Which drug did South Dakota's mocked 2019 campaign target with a slogan that read like a confession?

Meth was the target, but the campaign's double-meaning slogan was widely mocked, and Governor Kristi Noem was criticized for spending $449,000 of public money on it.

Which Plains state adopted a self-mocking tourism slogan conceding it is not to everyone's taste?

Nebraska unveiled the deadpan line in 2018 to replace a four-year-old slogan that simply called the state nice.

Which rock band's hit supplied the slogan for Alabama's 2007 tourism ads and 2009 license plates?

Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded the anthem, which the state's governor noted is the third most-played song that names a specific destination.

Whose license plates have complained since 2000 of paying federal tax with no vote in Congress?

Washington, D.C. put the protest on its standard plates in November 2000, since its residents pay federal income tax but cannot elect a voting member of Congress.

Which designer sketched New York State's famous heart logo in a taxi and did the job for free?

Milton Glaser drew it in red crayon on scrap paper and, expecting the tourism campaign to last only a couple of months, did the work without a fee.

Which state's license plates have boasted since 1982 that it was first in flight?

North Carolina is marking the 1903 flights at Kitty Hawk, and Ohio, the fliers' home state, later answered with a plate slogan claiming to be aviation's birthplace.

Minnesota's license plates boast of how many lakes, a figure that undercounts the real total?

10,000 undersells it: Minnesota counts well over eleven thousand lakes of ten acres or more.

Which president does Illinois honor in the official state slogan on its license plates since 1954?

Abraham Lincoln is one of three presidents elected while living in Illinois, along with Ulysses S. Grant and Barack Obama, while Ronald Reagan was born and raised there.

Which state's license plates have carried the same one-word vacation slogan since 1936?

Maine has used its one-word boast longer than any other state has kept a license plate slogan in continuous use.

Which state's tourism campaign took its sky slogan from the title of an A. B. Guthrie novel?

Montana printed the phrase on its license plates until 2009, and it has become the state's main, though unofficial, nickname.

Which is the only state whose license plates specify USA after its name to avoid confusion?

New Mexico added the three letters so that nobody mistakes the state for part of the neighboring country it borders.

Wisconsin's official state slogan, on its license plates since 1940, celebrates which industry?

Dairy farming so defines the state that its people are nicknamed cheeseheads, a label fans wear as foam hats shaped like a wedge of cheese.

South Dakota's license plates set a slogan about great faces over an image of which landmark?

Mount Rushmore fills the background of the plate and also gives the state its official nickname.

Which state stamped its license plates with a ski industry boast that no snow anywhere is better?

Utah credits the dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range, which is considered some of the best skiing in the world.

Which state adopted an unbridled-themed brand in 2004 after locals called its old slogan cheesy?

Kentucky paid a home-state firm $500,000 to develop the brand, which Governor Ernie Fletcher launched to make the state's advertising budget work harder.

Why did New Jersey's governor reject a paid consultant's proposed state slogan in 2005?

It sounded desperate, said Richard Codey, who then asked citizens for their own ideas, chose five finalists and put them to a public vote.

Which state's governor Tom McCall told TV viewers in 1971 to visit often but please not move there?

Oregon was straining under rapid population growth and suburban sprawl, which were eating into the farmland of the Willamette Valley.

Which state's official nickname about being natural was coined for tourism advertising in the 1970s?

Arkansas went on to put the phrase on its license plates, where it replaced an older slogan billing the state as a land of opportunity.

Arizona's license plates first named which natural landmark in a slogan adopted in 1940?

The Grand Canyon also supplies Arizona's official state nickname, which is the wording the plates carry.

Guam's slogan claiming that America's day starts there refers to the island lying near what?

The Date Line's closeness is the whole point of the phrase, which serves as the island's de facto motto and has appeared on its license plates.

North Dakota's license plate slogan honors a peace garden on its border with which province?

Manitoba shares the garden, whose name went onto the plates in 1956 and became an official state nickname the following year.

Delaware's license plates call it the first state because it led the original thirteen in what?

Ratifying the Constitution before any other state gave Delaware the boast, which doubles as its official state nickname.

Which Gulf Coast state's license plates bill it as a paradise for sportsmen?

Louisiana has also used its plates to call itself the Bayou State, a nickname that is no longer stamped on them.

What did jingle writer Steve Karmen do with the copyright to New York's 1977 tourism campaign song?

Donated it to the state: a rare move for Karmen, who was known for keeping the rights to his songs. The governor declared the tune the state anthem in 1980.

After the September 11 attacks, the designer of New York's heart logo added what to the heart?

A little black spot on the heart stood for the World Trade Center site, in a version of the logo reworded to declare more love than ever.

Mississippi's license plates once carried a slogan naming the state the birthplace of what?

America's music was the boast on plates issued from 2012, which pictured Lucille, the guitar of blues great B.B. King.

The Spanish slogan on Puerto Rico's license plates describes it as an island of what?

Enchantment translates encanto, the last word of the Spanish nickname that the island prints on its plates.

Which state, home to the center of the lower 48, once stamped Midway USA on its license plates?

Kansas holds the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states, which lies in Smith County near the town of Lebanon.

Which state's license plates carried a two-word slogan declaring it Native America until 2016?

Oklahoma's last plates with the slogan, issued from 2009, showed the words in white on a blue bar beside the battle shield of the Osage Nation.

Which state's license plates have proclaimed it the spirit of America since the 1980s?

Massachusetts plates carried a picture of a codfish in the late 1920s, decades before the slogan arrived.

Which group coined the Dixie slogan that a 1951 law added to Alabama's license plates?

The state Chamber of Commerce created the phrase, and the law paired it with a heart shape that still appears on standard plates.

Which pop artist's stacked LOVE design inspired the lettering of New York State's 1977 tourism logo?

Robert Indiana had stacked the four letters of LOVE on top of each other, and the tourism logo piles its own characters in the same way.

The soundtrack behind Michigan's state tourism commercials is the title theme from which film?

The Cider House Rules supplied the title theme that has played under the ads since the campaign launched in 2006.

Which state's license plates call it the last frontier?

Alaska is by far the largest state by area, with more total area than the next three largest states combined.