Now You See It, Now You Don't!
TellzAll's subject for April is Burma Shave Signs
During the early decades of the twentieth century, much was changing in the United States. This was a time of consumerism, when Americans were introduced to many different kinds of new products emerging from industrialization. To educate Americans about the many new items available to them, advertisers came up with new, innovative types of advertising. Because of the increase in the use of automobiles and the establishment of new and better roads, billboards and other types of roadside advertising began to emerge.
The Odell family, developers of Burma-Shave shaving cream, developed their own version of this roadside advertising in the 1920s. Clinton Odell gave his sons, Allan and Leonard Odell, $200 to develop the first signs. These signs soon made Burma-Shave a household name, as the Odells placed them alongside roads across the country.
Unlike most roadside advertising, which requires large billboards, the Burma-Shave signs were a series of small signs made out of boards. Each sign held one part of a poem that advertised Burma-Shave. The signs were placed a small distance apart from each other at the edge of the road, and people riding in cars could read each sign as they drove past. Over time, the signs began to present humorous messages and cautionary rhymes. Each sign was printed in white paint on a red background, colors that everyone associated with Burma-Shave. From four to six signs were posted together to make a rhyme. Although the Odell family originally wrote their own verses, they began holding competitions were ordinary Americans entered proposed rhymes as well.
At their peak, there were approximately seven thousand sets of Burma-Shave signs posted alongside roads in the United States. In the years following World War II, large billboards began replacing the smaller roadside signs. As interstate highways were built across the United States, cars could travel faster than they generally did on smaller roads. It was much easier to read the billboards than it was to read Burma-Shave signs, which were relatively small. The final new Burma-Shave signs were put up in 1963. The Odell family sold their company to Gillette, which eventually became part of Phillip Morris. Today, many Americans think back on the old Burma-Shave signs with a sense of nostalgia, and a handful of signs are displayed in museums. There is even a set of Burma-Shave signs at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
