Anti-Neon "Keep America Beautiful" Campaign

Lady Bird Johnson began an anti-neon campaign on America's highways.

The beginning of the end of neon arrived in the 1960s when the first lady at the time, Lady Bird (yes, that's right) Johnson decided that highways should be beautiful and neon was not part of the plan."Ugliness is so grim," the first lady once boasted. "A little beauty, something that is lovely, I think, can help create harmony which will lessen tensions."

Up until the passage of 1965's Highway Beautification Act neon was highway flypaper, attracting motorists with flashy classic steel-and-neon to stop and sleep or eat. After that, smaller back-lit plastic signs that were a better blend with the highway's natural foliage marked the roadside attractions. Neon-be-gone became persuasive from highway to highway all across the country.

Keep America Beautiful resurrected Lady Bird do-gooder wife and mother to a symbol of national pride, looking after America, a figure who distinguished neon's cutting-edge architecture.

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