Like many great success stories, Burma-Shave started by happenstance.  Burma- Shave, a brushless shaving cream, was concocted by the Odell family.  Its predecessor product, a liniment called Burma-Vita, was not doing very well in sales, due to competition and to the fact that it could only be sold to people who were ill.  It was suggested that it would be more profitable to market a product that could be used every day, such as Lloyd's Euxesis from England.  This was the original brushless shaving cream that was available world-wide.  A chemist was hired (Burma-Vita was one of grandfather Odell's homemade concoctions) and after about 300 mixtures were tried, Burma-Shave was born.

However, inventing the product was not the key to success, and the product almost died several times because of poor marketing.

The Small Wooden Signs

Then one day, Allan Odell came up with a suggestion.  He suggested roadside signs like the ones he had seen on road trips when he was out trying to sell Burma-Shave.  However, his father, Clinton Odell, would not hear of such an idea, and was sure that the boy was just homesick because of all the traveling he was doing.  Allan continued to lobby for his idea and finally his father gave in and gave him $200 to try out his idea.

The year was 1925, and the automobile had people beginning to take to the roads of America.  Second-hand boards were purchased, cut into 36-inch lengths, and painted.  The original signs did not have a rhyme.  Typically, four consecutive signs would read:

SHAVE THE MODERN WAY
FINE FOR THE SKIN
DRUGGISTS HAVE IT
BURMA-SHAVE

Allan put up his first signs in a farmer's field along Highway 65, between Albert Lea and Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1925. He also put up some signs in the fields along the road between Red Wing and Minneapolis.  After erecting a dozen sets of signs, orders started pouring in when travelers asked druggists about that shaving cream they saw mentioned on some funny signs.  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, spending $25,000 that year on signs.  Orders poured in, and sales for the year hit $68,000.

Success    

The signs were a brilliant idea.  America in the 1930s was torn by the Great Depression.  Spirits were low.   But here was a little company brightening the countryside with cheerful rhymes.  Some offered lighthearted observations like:

DIPLOMACY IS
TO DO AND SAY
THE NASTIEST THINGS
IN THE NICEST WAY

Others performed public service by reminding drivers of their responsibilities:

HER CHARIOT RACED
AT EIGHTY PER
THEY HAULED AWAY
WHAT HAD BEN HUR

CATTLE CROSSING
PLEASE DRIVE SLOW
THAT OLD BULL
IS SOME COW'S BEAU

The Pleasant Driving Diversion

The Burma-Shave Jingles were short lines written on 5 or 6 signs with the last sign usually reading "Burma-Shave".  The signs continued to bring success and became more and more humorous.  The consecutive signs, when placed 100 paces apart, created something unique in advertising.  Of course, in later years as the roads got better and cars got faster, the size of the signs and the distance between them had to be increased.

The consecutive signs commanded the attention of those reading them longer than any single sign could ever hope to do.  The signs helped make long journeys more entertaining, and people became addicted to reading them.

By having the rhymes build suspense until the fourth or fifth sign, Burma-Shave forced those reading the signs to focus their attention on reading the full series of signs so that the message could be understood and savored like a good joke.  For instance:

THE BEARDED LADY
TRIED A JAR
SHE'S NOW
A FAMOUS MOVIE STAR
BURMA-SHAVE

or

IF YOU THINK
SHE LIKES YOUR BRISTLES
WALK BARE-FOOTED
THROUGH SOME THISTLES
BURMA-SHAVE

The Rhymes of the Times    

The slogans were very powerful, so much so that the Burma-Shave Company did not even feel the effects of the Depression.  The rhymes aimed at motivating potential purchasers of Burma-Shave were not just cute, but were probably some of the best advertising slogans ever written.  Some of them suggested to men that they would do better with the women if they used Burma-Shave:

SHE EYED HIS BEARD
AND SAID, "NO DICE
THE WEDDING'S OFF-
I'LL COOK THE RICE"

or

A CHIN WHERE
BARBED WIRE BRISTLES STAND
IS BOUND TO BE
A NO MA'AMS LAND

Another good example is:

USE THIS CREAM
A DAY OR TWO
THEN DON'T CALL HER
SHE'LL CALL YOU

Not overlooking the spending power of women, the company put up rhymes to lure them to purchase Burma-Shave for the men in their lives:

A CHRISTMAS HUG
A BIRTHDAY KISS
AWAITS THE WOMAN
WHO GIVES THIS

Others slogans suggested that there was no better product or substitute for Burma-Shave:

SUBSTITUTES
ARE LIKE A GIRDLE
THEY FIND SOME JOBS
THEY JUST CAN'T HURDLE

Poems From Homes

Although Allan wrote many of the early jingles himself, what made the sign campaign so successful is that ordinary folks were encouraged to write the jingles, and were awarded cash prizes up to $100.  The family rejected any jingles which were even the slightest bit offensive like this was never used:

MY MAN WON'T SHAVE
SAID HAZEL HUZ
BUT I DON'T WORRY
DORA'S DOES

Others came close to being censored but were used:

SUBSTITUTES
CAN LET YOU DOWN
QUICKER THAN
A STRAPLESS GOWN
Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign!    

During WW II, homesick GI's would erect Burma-Shave look-alike signs in Alaska, Germany, and even Antarctica!   Eventually, about 7,000 sets of verses were posted along highways in 44 states.  A sign crew with just 8 trucks maintained all the signs.  The road men calling themselves "PHD's" (Post-Hole Diggers) changed the verses at least once a year and replaced any broken signs.  Most farmers were more than willing to allow the signs to be erected on their land, for little more than a case of the product each year.  The little Burma-Shave company grew to $3 million in annual sales.

Nearly everyone who drove on America's highways from the 1930's to the 1960's knew of the signs.  Or as one of the poems said:

IF YOU DON'T KNOW
WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE
YOU CAN'T HAVE
DRIVEN VERY FAR

In The Public's Interest

With the trend toward better automobiles and roads, the traffic accident rate began to climb.  In response, the company created some slogans stressing traffic safety.  In fact, some of the best Burma-Shave rhymes were written with public service in mind:

PAST SCHOOLHOUSES
TAKE IT SLOW
LET THE LITTLE
SHAVERS GROW

or

IS HE LONESOME
OR JUST BLIND
THIS GUY WHO DRIVES
SO CLOSE BEHIND?

Still other good examples include:

MANY A FOREST
USED TO STAND
WHERE A LIGHTED MATCH
GOT OUT OF HAND

and

THE ONE WHO DRIVES WHEN
HE'S BEEN DRINKING
DEPENDS ON YOU
TO DO HIS THINKING

The Demise    

But eventually times changed.  America's countryside shrank due to superhighways and faster cars.  Huge billboards outshouted the little signs.

In 1963 the Odell Family sold their company to Philip Morris, Inc.  It would become an operating division of a subsidiary at that time, American Safety Razor Products.  The huge conglomerate decided the verses were a silly idea, and that other types of advertising, especially television, would sell more product.

Americana

Few things recall America's lost innocence better than those old Burma-Shave signs that flourished in a time of family picnics and quiet Sundays at Grandma's house.