Okay no one asked! But! Today You Learned about Outhouse Springs.

If you lived in/drove through South Carolina in the early 2000’s, you probably saw one of these signs: 

Yup, these were ads for a brand of recycled water called “Outhouse Springs.” If that sounds gross, then yes, that’s the point. Because this wasn’t a real product, it was an ad campaign by a billboard company to show how effective they could be in stirring up interest in a fake product. People went looking for this in stores (I know I did, though I didn’t want my parents to buy any of it). Apparently enough people asked about it that they did eventually start selling bottled water with the label, though the brand didn’t last, and I have no idea if the stuff they sold was ACTUALLY recycled water.

Advertising company Adams has these motivational messages on their various billboards, both their traditional and electronic ones. The designs are fully credited to the artists.

They do funny campaigns aimed at driving home how successful billboard advertising still is, like their ads for “Outhouse Springs”recycled water.