‘Don’t Jerk and Drive’, Ummm, ‘Pulled Off’ the Air by State Officials

The message was there, but with the 6th grade boys mentality of so many people the South Dakota Department of Transportation's new winter safe driving campaign has ended - prematurely.

Called 'Don't Jerk & Drive' the campaign sought to educate drivers on how to handle driving on icy roads. Of course a large portion of the population, including all us radio folks, snickered like an 11-year old at the double entendre of 'jerk', so the ads were, ummm, 'pulled off' the air Friday.

• Don’t ‘Jerk and Drive’ South Dakota

Highway Safety Director Lee Axdahl, himself a former radio man, said that the name of the campaign was intentional to get people's attention. It worked, but the Public Safety Director for the state and a few state representatives felt that the name would detract from the message and called it 'a terrible error in judgment'.

Personally I think Axdahl was on to something. It's not an easy job talking to people about safety concerns but he had found a way to get people talking. Unfortunately, not everyone sees that humor can help educate. So the fun ad campaign, has been 'yanked'.