Burma-Shave

From Freepedia

Burma-Shave was a United States brand of brushless shaving cream that was sold from 1925 to 1966. The product was notable for its innovative advertising campaign, which relied on a series of roadside signs. Typically, six signs were erected, with each of the first five containing a line of verse, and the sixth displaying the brand name.

1 History
2 Roadside billboards
3 Examples
4 Special promotional messages
5 External links

History

Burma-Shave was the second brushless shaving cream to be manufactured and the first one to become a success. The product was sold by Clinton Odell and his sons Leonard and Allan, who formed the Burma-Vita Company, named for a liniment that was the company's first product. The Odells were not making money on Burma-Vita, and wanted to sell a product that people would use daily (Burma-Vita was targeted at the ill). A wholesale drug company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the company was located, told Clinton Odell about Lloyd's Euxesis, a British product that was the first brushless shaving cream made, but which was of poor quality. Clinton Odell hired a chemist named Carl Noren to produce a quality shaving cream. After 143 attempts, Burma-Shave was created.

To market Burma-Shave, Allan Odell devised the concept of sequential signboards to sell the product. He had noticed signs posted by a roadside gas station that said (sequentially): Gas, Oil, Restrooms, and finally a sign pointing to the gas station. The series of signs seemed to hold a driver's attention much longer than a conventional billboard.

Allan's father wasn't wild about the idea, but eventually gave him $200 to try it. In the fall of 1925, the first sets of Burma-Shave signs appeared on two highways leading out of Minneapolis. The original signs did not rhyme, but were usually a series of four signs, each having something to say about the product. Sales rose dramatically in the area, and the signs soon appeared nationwide. Within a decade, Burma-Shave was the second most popular brand of shaving cream in the United States. At their height of popularity, there were 7,000 sets of Burma-Shave signs along U.S. highways.

Burma-Shave sales rose to about 6 million in 1947. Sales stagnated for seven years, and then gradually started to fall. Numerous reasons exist, including urban growth (Burma-Shave signs were usually posted on rural highways) and higher speed limits that caused the signs to be ignored. Numerous, much larger billboards were erected along highways, encouraging drivers to ignore small signs as clutter.

In 1963, the Burma-Vita Company was sold to Phillip Morris. Shortly after the sale, the Burma-Shave signs were discontinued and soon removed from highways. In 1964, a set of signs ( Within this vale / of toil / and sin / your head grows bald / but not your chin-use / Burma-Shave) was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.

Philip Morris sold the Burma-Shave brand name to American Safety Razor Company in 1968, but the name remained dormant until 1997, when it was reintroduced for a line of shaving cream, razors, and accessories. Although the original Burma-Shave was a brushless shaving cream, the name currently (2005) is used to market a soap and shaving brush set.

In the spring of 2004, a group of sixth- and seventh-graders from Christ's Household of Faith School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, took a presentation about Burma-Shave to the National History Day competition in Maryland.

Roadside billboards

Burma-Shave sign series appeared from 1925 to 1963 in 44 of the lower 48 states, with New Mexico, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Nevada being the exceptions. Four or five consecutive billboards would line highways, so they could be read sequentially by motorists driving by.

This use of the billboard was a highly successful advertising gimmick, drawing attention and passer-by who were curious to discover the punchline.

The first set of slogans were written by the Odells. Before long, Burma-Shave started an annual contest for people to submit slogans, with winners receiving a $100 prize. Some contests received over 50,000 entries.

Examples

This guy	who drives	so close behind?	Is he lonesome
or just blind?	Burma-Shave

A chin / where barbed wire / bristles stand / is bound to be / a no ma'ams land / Burma-Shave
A Christmas hug / a birthday kiss / awaits the woman / who gives this / Burma-Shave
A man / a miss / a kiss, a curve / he kissed the miss / and missed the curve / Burma-Shave
A peach / looks good / with lots of fuzz / but man's no peach / and never wuz / Burma-Shave
A shave / that's real / no cuts to heal / a soothing / velvet after-feel / Burma-Shave
Dinah doesn't / treat him right / but if he'd / shave / dyna-mite! / Burma-Shave
Does your husband / misbehave / grunt and grumble / rant and rave? / shoot the brute some / Burma-Shave
Don't lose / your head / to gain a minute / you need your head / your brains are in it / Burma-Shave
Don't take a curve / at 60 per / we hate to lose / a customer / Burma-Shave
Every shaver / now can snore / six more minutes / than before / by using / Burma-Shave
Grandpa's beard / was stiff and coarse / and that's what / caused his / fifth divorce / Burma-Shave
He played / a sax / had no B.O. / but his whiskers scratched / so she let him go / Burma-Shave
He tried / to cross / as fast train neared / death didn't draft him / he volunteered / Burma-Shave (this is at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum)
He undertook / to overtake / a car around the bend / from now on the undertaker / is his only friend / Burma-Shave
Henry the Eighth / sure had trouble / short-term wives / long-term stubble / Burma-Shave
His tenor voice / she thought divine / till whiskers / scratched / sweet Adeline / Burma-Shave
If daisies are your / favorite flower / keep pushin' up those / miles-per-hour / Burma-Shave
In Cupid's little / bag of trix / here's the one / that clix / with chix / Burma-Shave
Listen birds / these signs cost money / so roost awhile / but don't get funny / Burma-Shave
Many a forest / used to stand / where a lighted match / got out of hand / Burma-Shave
Missin' / kissin'? / Perhaps your thrush / can't get through / the underbrush — try / Burma-Shave
Past / scholhouses / take it slow / let the little / shavers grow / Burma-Shave
Riot at / drug store / calling all cars / 100 customers / 99 jars / Burma-Shave
The bearded Devil / is forced / to dwell / in the only place / where they don't sell / Burma-Shave
The monkey took / one look at Jim / and threw the peanuts / back at him / he needed / Burma-Shave
The one who drives / when he's been drinking / depends on you / to do his thinking / Burma-Shave
The wolf / is shaved / so neat and trim / Red Riding Hood / is chasing him / Burma-Shave
Thirty days / hath September / April, June / and the speed offender / Burma-Shave
This cooling shave / will never fail / to stamp / its user / first-class male / Burma-Shave
To change that / shaving job / to joy / you gotta use / the real McCoy / Burma-Shave
Use our cream / and we betcha / girls won't wait / they'll come / and getcha / Burma-Shave

If you / don't know / whose signs / these are / You can't have / driven very far (no final "Burma-Shave" sign)
Shaving brushes / You'll soon see 'em / On a shelf / In some museum / Burma-Shave

Special promotional messages

Free offer! Free offer! / Rip a fender / off your car / mail it in for / a half-pound jar / Burma-Shave

A large number of fenders (real ones scavenged from junkyards, as well as from models) were received by the company, which made good on its promise.

Free — free / a trip to Mars / for 900 / empty jars / Burma-Shave

Arliss "Frenchy" French, the manager of a supermarket in Appleton, Wisconsin, took the company up on its offer, creating an elaborate promotion at his store. Ads saying "Send Frenchy to Mars" appeared in the local newspaper, and men dressed as aliens stood on the roof and fired toy rocket gliders over the parking lot. French emptied Burma-Shave jars sold at his store into ice cream cartons and kept the jars. After accumulating 900 jars, French sent the jars to Burma-Shave headquarters via armored car. After negotiation of terms by means of verse, the company agreed to send him on vacation to Moers (near Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany).