Great Texans: I'm Eddie Chiles and I'm Mad

Three classic Texas advertising slogans come to mind that would make the shortlist for the Texas Advertising Hall of Fame, if such a thing existed: There's Blue Bell ice cream's slogan, “We eat all we can and sell the rest.” Then there's “Don't Mess with Texas,” the anti-littering campaign of the mid-1980s and 1990s that was one of the most ingenious public service campaigns of all time.

And then there's my favorite: “If you don't have an oil well, get one. You'll love doing business with Western.” This slogan belonged to the Western Co. of North America, owned by Eddie Chiles, the iconic and energetic Texas oil tycoon.

Chiles actually became famous for two slogans that became popular catchphrases in Texas. The other was, “I'm Eddie Chiles and I'm mad.”

Chiles was a quintessential conservative Texan of his time. He was born in the small town of Itasca, Texas. His rags-to-riches story was like something out of a Texas version of Horatio Alger. Granted, he left Texas to attend the University of Oklahoma (what I call a study-abroad program), but I think we can forgive him because he earned a degree in petroleum engineering and immediately returned to Texas to start his company.

In 1939, he founded the Western Co. of North America, an oilfield services company, in Fort Worth with three employees and two trucks, and built it into a multimillion-dollar business. He then owned the Texas Rangers baseball team for about ten years before selling it in 1989 to a group of investors that included future president George W. Bush. But before that, he did us a favor and signed Nolan Ryan to a $2 million contract.

Chiles was a cantankerous, colorful, and tough businessman. Politically, he was to the right of Attila the Hun, although his signature phrase was ironically inspired by the 1976 film Network and its crazed anchorman Howard Beale, who said, “I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!”

Chiles never saw the movie, but he heard the phrase and identified with it, according to a 1980 article in Time magazine. He connected it to his frustration with big government, although big government, of course, was not what shocked Beale so much in the film. So in 1977, Chiles took to the airwaves and began producing a series of political commentaries, sponsored by the Western Co., in a similar vein. His phrase was simply: “I'm Eddie Chiles and I'm mad.” And then he launched into a tirade complaining about his three favorite subjects: big government, big government, and big government.

He would say something like: “I feel sorry for Americans who are trying to raise a family and buy a home while the liberals in Congress spend more and more and destroy the American dream. You need to get mad, too.” He always concluded that the government should defend our shores, deliver the mail, and stay the hell out of his business.

Chiles became something of a folk hero. Bumper stickers reading “I'm mad too, Eddie” began appearing all over Texas—in fact, all over the Southwest. You saw smaller versions on hard hats, right on the front. “I'm mad too, Eddie.”

He once said: “I'll tell you why I'm mad. Forty years ago, I started the Western Co., and thanks to the free enterprise system, I was able to build it into an international organization with about 4,000 employees. Today, I fear that the opportunity I had no longer exists. Over the past 50 years, the liberal philosophy practiced by Congress has literally turned the American dream into a nightmare. And that makes me mad. Fighting mad. I love America, and I'm determined to fight to win back our freedoms.”

Chiles eventually broadcast his political commentaries in advertisements on 650 radio stations in the 14 states where the Western Co. had offices. Because they promoted the Western Co., he told Time magazine that he deducted their cost as a business expense. This was in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before Rush Limbaugh had found his role as a radio firebrand. Eddie paved the way for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and perhaps even Donald Trump's political career. Some say he played a key role in Texas voting for Republican Reagan in 1980.

More people probably remember his “I'm mad” catchphrase than the slogan promoting his oilfield services company. But I, for one, will always remember the commercial that aired so often during NFL games. A beautiful young woman stood beside a drilling rig with a hard hat on her head and said, “If you don't have an oil well, get one; you'll love doing business with Western.”