IF YOU DON'T KNOW
WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE
YOU CAN'T HAVE
DRIVEN VERY FAR
Burma-Shave
How many of you can remember in your travels throughout the United States back in the twenties, thirties and even up to the sixties the five or six verses of those famous BURMA SHAVE signs. Each line of the verse being on one sign and the signs were placed far enough apart so that at ordinary speed you, or some occupant in the car could easily read the whole limerick.
It all started back in the early twenties, Clinton Odell developed a
brushless shaving cream which he called Burma-Shave. At a time when
folks were really starting to travel America by automobile, the
brushless shave cream eliminated the problem of packing a wet shaving
brush and cup. Odell had an excellent product; but he lacked a
marketing plan.
What was about to happen, is one of America's most successful
advertising plans ever!
Now, lets go to Candance Rich WEB page:
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma.htm
for her spin on what happened
during those days. She has about 125 Burma Shave slogans on
her page.
Way back in 1925 young Allan Odell pitched this great sales idea to his father, Clifford. Use small, wooden roadside signs to pitch their product. Dad wasn't wild about the idea but eventually gave Allan $200 to give it a try. It didn't take long for sales to soar. Soon Allan and his brother Leonard were putting up signs all over the place. At first the signs were pure sales pitch but as the years passed they found their sense of humor extending to safety tips and pure fun. And some good old-fashioned down home wisdom.
At their height of popularity there were 600 slogans on 7,000 Burma-Shave signs stretching across America. The familiar white on red signs, grouped by four, five's and sixes, were as much a part of a family trip as irritating your kid brother in the back seat of the car. You'd read first one, then another, anticipating the punch line on number five and the familiar Burma-Shave on the sixth.
The signs cheered us during the Depression and the dark days of World War II. But things began to change in the late Fifties. Cars got faster and superhighways got built to accommodate them. The fun little signs were being replaced by huge, unsightly billboards.
By 1963 they were all gone. As befits such an important part of
American culture, one set is preserved by the Smithsonian Institution.
Copyright 1998. All Rights reserved. Candace Rich.
Here is some further information:
One of the first signs was along Route 35, between Albert Lea and
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Within weeks, drug stores began running out
of Burma-Shave, and ordering more. The next year, Allan and his
brother
Leonard set up more signs, spreading across Minnesota and into
Wisconsin, they spent $25,000 that year on signs. Orders poured in,
and sales for the year hit $68,000.
The Burma-Shave company grew to $3 million in annual sales.
The Odell Family sold their company to Gillette, The huge conglomerate
decided the verses were a silly idea, and that other types of
advertising,
especially television, would sell more product. By 1966, every last
sign
disappeared from America's highways.
Other WEB sites that have slogans:
http://sandbox.delphi.com/callahan/wall/burma_shave.html
http://seniors-site.com/funstuff/burma.html
http://www.iea.com/~dgookin/burma.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~grantmcl/burmashave.html
For more Burma Shave WEB sites you can go to any number of search engines. Just type in the search box the words in parentheses "burma shave"