As Brittany Callahan was driving along westbound Interstate 10 toward New Orleans on Tuesday for a business meeting, she looked up and spotted something that made her smirk.

"You are 114 miles from America's Original Mardi Gras," read a billboard with a green backdrop sponsored by the Alabama Tourism Department.

Spotted this just outside of New Orleans this morning. Kudos to Alabama for the epic troll job on New Orleans. @City_of_Mobile @MayorStimpson @TweetHomeAla pic.twitter.com/2eB7QTOocI — Brittany Callahan (@BrittCallie) January 31, 2018

She spotted the billboard in Slidell, Louisiana, which is just northeast of the Big Easy. Callahan said she also spotted two other signs, one located near downtown New Orleans and another along eastbound I-10 in the Biloxi/Gulfport area.

"I thought it was hilarious," said Callahan. "A lot of people don't know that Mobile is the original home of Mardi Gras. For them to put something out there as you head into New Orleans, that's pretty funny."

An official with the state tourism department was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

Lea Sinclair, spokeswoman at the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., acknowledged Mobile's claim as the "Birthplace of Mardi Gras." But she said the city isn't worried about who sponsored the first Carnival celebration in the early 1700s.

"Mobile, AL is indeed where the first Mardi Gras was held," Sinclair said in an email. "We don't concentrate on first. We are proud that this wonderful tradition found its way to New Orleans where it is truly one of the top events annually in the world."

Alabama politicians also engaged in some friendly trolling. U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, made the billboard known to House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, on Twitter.

Hey, @SteveScalise: I hope you catch one of these billboards the next time you are back in Louisiana! #HomeOfMardiGras https://t.co/1kkjbkeA0H? — Rep. Bradley Byrne (@RepByrne) January 31, 2018

Some of the reaction on social media:

So Mobile has taken out billboards, including one in NOLA East, declaring things along the lines of, "You are now 132 miles from America's original Mardi Gras". The ability to be so ignorant as one attempts to throw shade is astounding. — Todd Kennedy (@NSUFilmStudies) January 26, 2018

I do appreciate the endless effort to claim https://t.co/AtiVJJtxSI's like watching a kid try to convince themselves they're Spider-Man bc of a costume — badallison🌊 (@allisonbadely) January 26, 2018

This isn't the first time Mobile has attempted to promote its Mardi Gras with interstate billboards while positioning itself in a friendly competition with New Orleans.

In 2015, a billboard was erected by Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson next to I-10 in downtown Mobile that read, "Welcome to Mobile, birthplace of Mardi Gras," in garish purple letters. Stimpson appeared in an accompanying video and said, "Our friends over there, Mayor Landrieu, we just want y'all to have a great Mardi Gras, but remember, Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras."

The "birthplace" theme continued this month with the release of a new Mardi Gras flag and logo designed by Michael Kraft LLC. The purple and gold flag depicts tragi-comic jesters on either side of a crown-topped M, with the words, "Mobile 1703" below.

Historians link Mardi Gras in Mobile to 1703, one year after the city's founding in 1702 and 15 years before New Orleans was discovered in 1718. The first masked ball in Mobile began in 1704, and the tradition of a parade started in 1711.

But New Orleans, over time, has become synonymous in the U.S. with the pre-Lenten festival. Mobile has long been recognized as celebrating the country's second-largest Mardi Gras, drawing an estimate 1 million people each year for its various parades and balls.