TULSA, Okla. — If you're driving along the highway you've probably noticed the signs that hang overhead.

You've probably also noticed they've sometimes got a catchy one-liner tying into an upcoming holiday or event.

Believe it or not, but there's actually a process to what goes into writing and deciding on those funny blurbs you see hanging over Oklahoma highways.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation Spokesperson, Madison Shine tells KRMG these signs are updated every week.

Usually they are posted on social media every Wednesday.

Shine explains to KRMG what goes in to deciding what those signs say.

“We start brainstorming [ideas] every quarter. We go through a huge brainstorming session and then we sit there, we fine-tune it to be able to be short, sweet and catch the driver’s attention,” Shine told KRMG. “We think of all the holidays, all the upcoming events that are going to catch drivers’ attention. Try to figure out a good way to connect with people.”

When choosing what holiday, event or even celebrity birthday is important enough to make a sign about, Shine tells KRMG it’s about bringing it back to a message about safety.

“It’s kind of a tag team. Can our little one-liner message be just as great and connect with the person while including the safety message? The whole point is to include that safety message, so if we can’t include that, we go back to the drawing board or we see if there is a different holiday or message to include that week.”

When asked if they get feedback about the messages, Shine says, “Yes we do! We put these on social media every Wednesday... and people will sit there and comment or share or give us ideas on it and that’s how we get feedback and remind people, ‘Hey! There’s something coming up!’”

They even take fan submissions.

"So if the public wants to comment and give us something on social media, we'll store it in our brainstorm and then we'll go through the same process to see if we can use it through the next quarter."
She does say that the submissions do need to be family friendly to be accepted.

You can listen to the full interview with ODOT Spokesperson Madison Shine here: