A Fake Buc-ee's Billboard in Kentucky is Making People Mad

This particular story isn't Texas related but does involve a Texas favorite, Buc-ee's. This is also a relatable thing for myself being in the radio, and marketing, industry. This story has to do with a Reddit post about a Buc-ee's billboard placed along Interstate 75 in Kentucky. It shows a Buc-ee's billboard on the bottom with another billboard on top that's advertising a gun range. It's what the Buc-ee's billboard says that has caused an uproar online. I decided to investigate.

Advertising

When you listen to our radio station, you will hear commercials. We do that because we provide a free service for you to listen to in your car or in your home. Those commercials help pay the bills here, pay our salaries and get the word out about a business in the East Texas area. Another form of advertising is using a billboard.

Billboard technology has really grown over the last 10 to 15 years. Billboards can still be a single ad printed on a large canvas and glued to a piece of wood. Billboards can also be basically a giant flat screen TV that can rotate several ads at a time. The thing about both radio commercials and billboard advertisements is that the client has no control what commercial or billboard will be played or shown adjacent to them.

Online Outrage

A Reddit user by the name of National-Standard229 posted a picture in the r/pics Subreddit showing a dual billboard along Interstate 75 in Kentucky outside the city of Corbin. The top billboard is advertising a gun range while the Buc-ee's billboard below it has the single word "Slay" which Buc-ee's does use on some billboards. Of course, this combo caused some outrage but also some confusion. Some thought Buc-ee's was advertising murder while others had no idea that "Slay" is used as a term to mean being impressed by it.

"Describe America in one picture"
byu/National-Standard229 inpics

Some blamed Buc-ee's for this advertisement's placement. Here's the thing, Buc-ee's probably had no idea what else was being advertised there when they bought the billboard. So no, Buc-ee's didn't put it there, the billboard company did.

The Billboard is a Fake

This billboard is most likely a fake. Photoshop, or some form of it, was most likely used to make this picture. How am I so sure of this? Well, I decided to go to Google Maps to find that billboard. Using some investigative skills, I found that billboard and was able to screenshot it for you.

Google Maps

If you want to look it up yourself, copy the latitude and longitude of 36°58'53.8"N 84°06'34.6"W and paste it into Google Maps. You'll see the same thing. Granted, this is from 2022, so yes, Buc-ee's could've changed the messaging between when the Google car took this and the photo that was posted on Reddit, but I doubt it. That kind of advertising isn't cheap to change out so the messaging will stay the same for a while.

Online Outrage is a Funny Thing

When people get mad online, I always get a giggle out of it. 99.9% of responses are such knee jerk reactions. No one stops for two minutes to do any kind of research to determine if what's being said or shown is even real. This is one of those cases. Someone faked a photo to get a reaction out of people and it worked.