As I passed a U-Haul truck on the highway, I noticed something odd. On the side of the U-Haul trucks are pictures for the “Venture Across America” campaign, with pictures for the different states. Sometimes they are kitschy, like an old postcard. This one was just strange. It was a Doppler radar map, with a huge storm, lots of red and orange, along with a large green wireframe drawing of a tornado. It said “Oklahoma” in large letters across the top.
What? Go to Oklahoma, where you can experience really bad storms and lots of tornados? What were they thinking? That does not make me want to visit Oklahoma. In fact, it makes me want to avoid Oklahoma at all costs. I had to deal with a storm that was yellow, orange and red on the Doppler radar last week, and that was not fun. There is no way I would intentionally seek that out.
As I passed the truck, I noticed that in smaller letters it said, “Center for Weather Research, Forecasting and Education”. I don’t think that really softened the blow. It was as if they said that the weather there is so bad, they have a lot of opportunities to research it. Again, not something that makes me want to rent a U-Haul and head to Oklahoma any time soon.
I think someone in marketing needs to rethink Oklahoma’s representation in this campaign. Or maybe Oklahoma needs to send an ambassador to U-Haul and set them straight. I wonder if Promo’s up for the task?
I think I saw an “advertisement” once for Hawaii too. Odd, I don’t think you can drive a U-Haul to Hawaii, can you? Nice that they were represented, but it still seems strange.
Update: Maybe U-Haul has revamped all of the images, going for the freaky instead of kitschy? Because look at the one for Texas – what are those green blobs? How about Hawaii? That spider thing with the screaming smiley alien face is just scary. And it says “Alien Battlefield at Hawaii Volcanos Nat’l Park”. Uhm, ok. I think they need to drop the “Modern Graphics” campaign and switch back to the “Classic Graphics“. Fast. The classic Oklahoma graphic will get me there a lot faster then that freaky giant tornado!
21 replies on “Oklahoma is Ok!”
my favorite is the one with two stick guys wrapping duct tape around their head…advertising that tape isn’t a toy! that isn’t u-haul, though…i don’t remember which trucks had that!
All the truck’s I’ve seen are from somewhere else. Intersting thought that someone chose that for our state. Yeah nothing like disaster to make folks wanna move to your state.
I can’t believe our Native American heritage wasn’t represented at all! Nevada gets Area 51, New Mexico gets the Roswell Alien. Us? Natural disaters.
Could be worse I guess, at least it wasn’t the Federal Building. If you want to link to it, you can dig the image here: http://www.uhaul.com/supergraphics/wallpaper/template.html?oklahoma
I guess I’m one of the crazy ones who wants to go to Oklahoma BECAUSE of the weather…LOL. I’ve always wanted to move to Kansas, Oklahoma, or Texas because of the storms they get. My dream job is to be a storm chaser. But, I’m sure everyone thinks I’m a little wacky…LOL.
That’s kinda funny, I would think Oklahoma would be represented by the vast flat land with trees being bent over by all that wind they have. Goodness, I do like it there though. Used to drive through it every summer growing up. Straight through Atoka [ even saved a turtle from the road there and named it such.] and past Lake Ufalla [Lake Ufalla-in as my sisters and I called it, lol]
the description of the modern graphics is too small in comparison for the graphic. like the one for Texas – those green blobs do not look like they belong in a flower garden to me… nor do they look like marine wildlife.
my husband would side with Becky in that he would love to go to Oklahoma for the weather, too. we have like every single tornado video ever made! he would love to be a tornado chaser.
I’m going to guess those are jellyfish on the Texas truck which is pretty appropriate if you’ve been to the beaches lately.
Of course, the tornado should have been on the Texas truck too since we actually get more tornados than any other state including Oklahoma and Kansas.
I had a love-hate thing with Oklahoma. I loved watching the thunderstorms. I hated the tornadoes. I’ve spent evenings in a crowded tornado shelter while 200mph winds roared overhead. I sort of miss the lightning displays too, and my husband would LOVE to be a storm-chaser. BUT, while I can understand the fascination with the weather I still think they could have come up with some more … endearing … sort of theme.
My favorite one, I’m not sure where it is from – Arizona or New Mexico – has a giant venus fly trap on it. I always laugh when I see it, it reminds me of something from a 50’s horror flick, which as a matter of fact so do those green blobs!
and what’s up with the Colorado graphic? We live in the Rockies.. HELLO!
I notice they didn’t have one for New York (among other states). Wonder what their little known fact would be?
Y’know, I can take most of these without complaining (much), but did you see the one for South Dakota? It’s a sea turtle! They changed it from Mount Rushmore to a sea turtle. Did anyone have the heart to tell these folks that SD is landlocked??
The caption reads:
600 feet beneath the waves of the western interior seaway
wtf??
At least they explain the turtle here. “Believe it or not, the fossilized remains of the largest sea turtle that roamed the Earth was found in the grassy plains of South Dakota.”
All of the states represented so far on the “Modern Graphics” page have “Enhanced Sites” explaining the graphics. Pretty educational – but a sea turtle would not lead me to South Dakota! (Although the cool fossils and Mt. Rushmore might!)
It’s perfectly clear what’s on the Texas graphic. Marshmallow Jello Salads. It’s a tribute to the national food-like product of East Texas. I’m pretty sure there’s an annual festival in Kilgore or Dime Box or Longview.
Hey, maybe the LRs could play it!
HA The Texas one should have blue bonnets, not something that looks like it exploded from the 70’s!
I’m in the Austin area, and we’re right on the edge of tornado alley. We’ve had our fair share of bad storms.
I’ve seen those trucks, the idea is good, but, the creative authority is warped.
Floriduh checking in — I want back our kitschy space shuttle, not those freaky, mutant, giant, gonna-jump-out-and-grab-you flowers.
But then again, our license plates have an orange on them that is the color and shape of a peach. Got us confused with Georgia, I think.
But, is there another reason to want to visit Oklahoma?
There’s tons of reasons to visit Oklahoma! I’M HERE! J9 is here! That’s 2 very good reasons! 😉 Other than that, we have some very kewl and interesting things in this state to visit. Marland Mansion in Ponca City, (my home town) is rather interesting and full of history, Cowboy Hall of Fame, in Oklahoma City. There’s tons of stuff other than just the weather. Besides, we’re good people. 🙂
Snooplahoma, as I call it, is someplace I never thought I would go. But it was actually kinda fun… We had nowhere to go for the 4th, so we decided “What the hell” and went.
* I refer to it as Snooplahoma due to Snoop Dogg’s show on MTV, where he “purchased” Oklahoma and named it that. Maybe they should have Snoop on the side of the truck then…
Oklahoma, Oh NO
Anyone who knows me (or has read my 100 things or my blog for any length of time) knows I used to live in Oklahoma….
Stormy Weather
Whoops! And here I was thinking U-Haul’s van graphics overlooked Oklahoma’s Native Americans!