Is Joe Jonas Texan enough to star in new 'Don't mess with Texas' anti-littering ads? TxDOT thinks so

Clad in a cowboy hat, spurs and fringe, singer Joe Jonas taps into his Dallas roots in the new ad for the "Don’t mess with Texas" anti-littering campaign.

Jonas, an actor, songwriter and former boy band member, is the newest celebrity face for the Texas Department of Transportation's anti-littering campaign that has been around for more than 35 years. As a spokesperson, the Jonas brother will appear in TV and radio public service ads starting in June. TxDOT announced the collaboration Monday on Twitter.

Campaign coordinator Becky Ozuna said Jonas was chosen after the department's 2020 campaign research found the age group of 16- to 34-year-olds are most likely to litter. So when the campaign looked for a new spokesperson, it looked to those who could relate to this demographic. The Jonas name, recognizable by a large number of people, hit the mark.

Why Joe Jonas?

Jonas got his start in the early 2000s in the Jonas Brothers band. Over the 2000s, he appeared in Disney movies and the band even had their own show making the Jonas name highly recognizable for those within that 16-34 age category.

“The millennials know him from the Jonas Brothers, and then now that they've had a resurgence and he's been doing more acting and things like that, he has clout with the younger generation,” Ozuna said.

The cowboy hat and persona aren’t new for Jonas — he played a similar character in the HBO comedy "Righteous Gemstones," a show older audiences might recognize him from. For the show’s soundtrack, he even did a cover of the classic country song, "God Blessed Texas." Ozuna said the Don’t mess with Texas campaign has always had “a country twang” and Joe Jonas fit in perfectly with that image.

The campaign emerged in the late 1980s when TxDOT spent $20 million a year picking up trash. As this number increased by about 17% yearly, the Don’t mess with Texas campaign was born. The slogan rallied Texans behind the idea of not littering and keeping state lands clean.

Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan helped launch the 1986 inaugural campaign during the TV broadcast of the 50th annual Cotton Bowl. Since then, the campaign has featured Texas celebrities like country icons Willie Nelson and George Strait, Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, the Austin band Black Pumas and now Joe Jonas.

While he wasn't born in Texas, Jonas moved to the state as an infant, which Ozuna said puts him in the category of "those who weren’t born in Texas, but got here as soon as they could."

As Ozuna watched videos of Joe and his brothers giving tours of their Texas family home and their hometown Dallas, she said it was clear to her that Joe is proud of his Texas roots.

“Joe Jonas has a positive image, and we were happy that he was so willing to go above and beyond for the commercial,” Ozuna said. “He was able to showcase his natural comedy chops, as much of the spot was ad-libbed by him.”

In the ad, Jonas goes around the Don’t mess with Texas offices, gathering trash in a large blue, red and white bin with the familiar logo on it.

“I just want to keep Texas clean and maybe spice some things up around here,” Jonas said in the ad.

Each year in Texas, about 362 million pieces of litter pile up along state-maintained highways, according to TxDOT. Litter cleanup efforts cost more than $50 million last year, the agency said.

“Don’t mess with Texas means don’t litter. I take that pretty seriously…” Jonas said in a tweet.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Joe Jonas, raised in Dallas, stars in new 'Don't Mess With Texas' ads