South Dakota has pulled, yanked, and/or tugged a public safety campaign warning drivers about the dangers of "jerking"while they're on the road, largely because of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the state's powerful pro-jerking lobby. Kidding! It was because some residents objected to the use of double entendre, which is more of a fancy North Dakota thing.

State Rep. Mike Verchio (R-Nofuntown) cottoned onto the PSA's dual meanings—nothing gets past Mike—and criticized the Department of Public Safety for what he called "a terrible error in judgment."

The campaign was targeted at young male drivers—who are the most likely group to cause accidents by overcorrecting in ice and snow, and with whom literally nothing is more popular than masturbation—and attempted to convey the message that "we'd prefer drivers keep their cars out of the ditch and their minds out of the gutter," Lee Axdahl of the Highway Safety office told the Argus Leader.

But Axdahl was overruled by Trevor Jones, the Safety Department secretary, after Verchio's complaints.

"I decided to pull the ad," said Jones, "This is an important safety message and I don't want this innuendo to distract from our goal to save lives on the road."

That's despite the jerk campaign's success rate on Facebook, where it "outperformed previous public safety campaigns 25 to 1," partially due to complaints from people who thought its double meaning must have been an accident that slipped by state officials.

You'd think the easily offended would be against masturbating in cars, but if they want to come out strongly in favor of jerking and driving, that's certainly their right.

[h/t Death and Taxes]