I Texas Texas?
1/7
This week, I spent a few days in Texas visiting my grandparents. Immediately after arriving the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, I noticed how everything was "all about Texas". Every gift shop was filled with Texas themed t-shirts, license plate decorations, mugs, hats, blankets, pillows, electronic chargers... Anything you could think of came with a Texas state flag printed on it. I figured this could be because we were in the airport and the idea of welcoming people to Texas from other parts of the world caused this presence of state spirit. But throughout the three days I spent there, I walked around a shopping mall and noticed the same behaviors. Texas "spirit-wear" appeared in every store. Even international chain stores were unlike their sister stores in California: they all had large numbers of products dedicated to promoting Texas...
At first, I passed off this behavior simply as that of "Texan culture," but the more I saw it, the more I recognized how strange it is. I had several conversations with my sisters about the differences between the media we consumed in Texas and what we see in Sacramento, and even after long discussions about the various disparities, we remained a little puzzled as to why it has turned out so different. I remain confused about the following questions and am interested to see if anyone has any ideas about the cause of this phenomenon.
We don't see "I love California" printed on every mug and t-shirt, so why is it that way in Texas? Why does Texas seem to advertise its very statehood? What is to be gained from having Texas printed on everything everywhere? Does this help large stores to sell their brand experience somehow? Is state spirit and pride the only thing driving these marketing decisions?
At first, I passed off this behavior simply as that of "Texan culture," but the more I saw it, the more I recognized how strange it is. I had several conversations with my sisters about the differences between the media we consumed in Texas and what we see in Sacramento, and even after long discussions about the various disparities, we remained a little puzzled as to why it has turned out so different. I remain confused about the following questions and am interested to see if anyone has any ideas about the cause of this phenomenon.
We don't see "I love California" printed on every mug and t-shirt, so why is it that way in Texas? Why does Texas seem to advertise its very statehood? What is to be gained from having Texas printed on everything everywhere? Does this help large stores to sell their brand experience somehow? Is state spirit and pride the only thing driving these marketing decisions?
I'm under the assumption Texas is actually a cowboy amusement park with scary natural disasters, scary people, and for some reason the belief that they didn't lose the battle at Alamo. However, California is very similar, as every shop I visit says something about our beloved state. We even have a theme park named California Adventure, go figure. Pacsun? Their slogan is, "Golden State of Mind," a play on our golden state. California even gets more specific too, with each large city boasting tons of merch advertising their city. I don't think there's a single student at CKM that doesn't own a shirt that proclaims 'California' in cursive font. The reason? Pride. Texas and California are both super populated and super prideful about their respective states.
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