Some amazing ad copies from Burma Shave
OUR FORTUNE
IS YOUR SHAVEN FACE
IT’S OUR BEST
ADVERTISING SPACE
BURMA-SHAVE
BEN MET ANNA
MADE A HIT
NEGLECTED BEARD
BEN-ANNA SPLIT
BURMA-SHAVE
THIS CREAM MAKES THE
GARDENER’S DAUGHTER
PLANT HER TU-LIPS
WHERE SHE OUGHTER
BURMA-SHAVE
IF YOUR PEACH
KEEPS OUT OF REACH
BETTER PRACTICE
WHAT WE PREACH
BURMA-SHAVE
THE BIG BLUE TUBE’S
JUST LIKE LOUISE
YOU GET A THRILL
FROM EVERY SQUEEZE
BURMA-SHAVE
SAID FARMER BROWN
WHO’S BALD ON TOP
“WISH I COULD
ROTATE THE CROP”
BURMA-SHAVE
SHE PUT A BULLET
THROUGH HIS HAT
BUT HE’S HAD CLOSER
SHAVES THAN THAT
WITH BURMA-SHAVE
IF YOU DON’T KNOW
WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE
YOU CAN’T HAVE
DRIVEN VERY FAR
BURMA-SHAVE
HENRY THE EIGHTH
SURE HAD TROUBLE
SHORT-TERM WIVES
LONG-TERM STUBBLE
BURMA-SHAVE
Link
They started in the late 1920s as a small company’s desperate attempt to make a name for its new product, Burma-Shave, a brushless shaving cream. Sets of six wooden signs were erected about 100 feet apart along the nation’s two-lane highways.
Allan Odell, whose father’s company, the Burma-Vita Corp. of Minneapolis, was on the verge of bankruptcy, came upon the idea when he spotted a set of four signs along the side of a road touting a gas station’s oil and restrooms. He wondered whether the concept would work as an advertisement for Burma-Shave, according to historian Bill Vossler, author of Burma-Shave: The Rhymes, the Signs, the Times (North Star Press, St. Cloud, Minn.).
So, with $200 worth of scrap lumber, Allan and his younger brother Leonard posted the first Burma-Shave signs along highways in southern Minnesota.
On Morning Edition, Lars Hoel reports on the Burma-Shave advertising phenomenon as part of NPR’s year-long series Present at the Creation, which examines the origins of American cultural icons.
Link
