AND SIN
YOUR HEAD GROWS BALD
BUT NOT YOUR CHIN -- USE
BURMA-SHAVE
These six lines of verse, lettered in white on a red background, appear on six separate wooden boards measuring 10 by 36 inches; the boards are displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The verse on the Smithsonian's sign was one of 556 different verses painted on Burma-Shave signs between 1927 and 1963.
Thousands of these boards were produced and distributed throughout the United States. Spaced 100 feet apart, each board could be easily read by the occupants of a car travelling 35 miles per hour, the average speed on American roads before super highways. Most Americans over 50 remember these signs -- probably the most famous and effective advertising campaign in American History.
The Odell family of Minneapolis, Minnesota owned Burma-Vita, a small company going broke trying to sell lineament. Then one day in 1925, the Odells discovered a new product -- brushless shaving cream. In those days men shaved by mixing soap in a mug with a horsehair brush and then spreading the lather on their face. The Odell's concoction came in a jar or a tube -- no soap, no mug, no brush; they called it Burma-Shave. The Odells had a good product, but they were stumped on how to market Burma-Shave.
While out on the road trying to sell Burma-Shave one afternoon, Allen Odell saw a little sign along the road containing one word "gas"; a little farther down the road another sign said "oil"; the final sign said "restrooms" and pointed to the gas station. Allen thought about using similar signs to sell Burma-Shave and convinced his father Clinton, the company's president, to give him $200 to make the first Burma-Shave sign: SHAVE THE MODERN WAY/ FINE FOR THE SKIN/ DRUGGISTS HAVE IT/ BURMA-SHAVE. Two sets of this sign were made for two different Minnesota roads. Although written in an advertising prose rather than a rhyme, the first Burma-Shave sign worked -- the Odells started getting repeat orders for Burma-Shave.
When the 1929 verses took on a light-hearted wit put to a rhyme, an American institution was born. So successful were the signs that Burma-Vita opened their own sign making shop. Soon the roadside rhymes spread across the nation:
EVERY SHAVER
NOW CAN SNORE
SIX MORE MINUTES
THAN BEFORE
BY USING
BURMA-SHAVE /
YOUR SHAVING BRUSH
HAS HAD ITS DAY
SO WHY NOT
SHAVE THE MODERN WAY
WITH
BURMA-SHAVE /
HALF A POUND
FOR
HALF A DOLLAR
SPREAD ON THIN
ABOVE THE COLLAR
BURMA-SHAVE /
The humorous verse in ryhme endeared these roadside ads to generations of Americans. But the Odells fine well of
