Burma-Shave Advertising Signs
date: label: date made
content: 1959
name: label: maker
content: Burma-Vita Company
notes: label: Description
content: By the 1920s, commercial signs and billboards turned the roadside into an advertising medium. Allan Odell, sales manager of the family-owned Burma-Vita Company, created serial roadside rhymes in 1926 to advertise the company’s brushless shaving cream. He was inspired by a string of signs leading to a service station in Illinois, each sign promoting a product or service available at the station. The earliest Burma-Shave signs boosted sales significantly; the sign program spread so rapidly that the company began a nationwide contest, resulting in dozens of selections annually. Some verses merely extolled the Burma-Shave product, while others made light of facial hair, shaving, and intimacy with the opposite sex. Gradually the company introduced “public service announcements” in the form of humorous reminders to drive safely or suffer the consequences. This rhyme is a commentary on the serious problem of drinking and driving. Verses of this type cautioned motorists to be aware of the risks of expanded personal mobility and drive safely and responsibly.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Minnesota, Minneapolis
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Transportation, Road
label: See more items in
content: Advertising
label: See more items in
content: American Enterprise
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: See more items in
content: Road Transportation
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Brian Linker
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0121.01
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0121.01
label: accession number
content: 2005.0121
objectType: label: Object Name
content: signs
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 17 in x 40 in x 6 in; 43.18 cm x 101.6 cm x 15.24 cm