In Oklahoma, a battle has been waging over T-shirts. For the past 10 years, when visitors touched down at the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, Okla., they were greeted with decorated apparel and other merchandise that featured the phrase, “Nothing Tips Like a Cow.”
While humorous, Oklahoma residents and Oklahoma City mayor David Holt felt that the T-shirts didn’t do the best job of conjuring a favorable impression of the state.
Every other airport has relatively decent t-shirts to represent their city, but in KC the shirts say "nothing tips like a cow"
— Bailey (Ferree) Graves (@BayFerree) January 17, 2017
It also seems like the T-shirts give permission to tourists to give the state’s cows their best shove, which is just plain mean. In addition, we’d have to say there are probably plenty of things that tip better than a cow.
Sorry, R2-D2:
Holt, apparently, has made eliminating the airport tees a priority. He even said their removal was his own personal mission:
For the last decade or so, our redesigned OKC airport has made a beautiful first impression on visitors, with one notable exception: the awful cow-tipping t-shirts that bear no relation to actual life in OKC. Upon becoming Mayor, I made their removal a personal mission. (1/2)
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) February 21, 2019
Now that the T-shirts and other items have sold out, the airport has agreed not to restock them, bringing the saga to an end.
If it makes you feel better, Oklahoma, these shirts exist at the Kansas airport too:
Nothing tips like a cow!! In the Kansas City Airport! #InvictaFC2 @InvictaFights pic.twitter.com/pCroQlsR
— Alexis Davis (@AlexisDavisMMA) July 25, 2012
This is just a reminder for decorated apparel suppliers and distributors that the products carry a lot of weight. They can define a state and even influence tourists’ opinions of the cities they’re visiting. It’s important to make sure promotional apparel is in line with the client’s brand messaging. In this case, it appears Oklahoma’s has changed. The shirts had to change with it.
No cows were tipped in the writing of this post.
