Burma Shave

The art of the pun!

I remember vividly, jumping off the school bus wearing my smiley face top, my purple corduroy bellbottoms and brown earth shoes as I raced home that day. My heart pounding wildly and my eyes were wide with excitement. Little did I know it was just the first of many writing competitions to come. I was ten years old.

Our fifth grade class had been tasked to write a story about something from the past that had shaped our future. Back in the 60’s, at my parents house, we had an entire wall in our living room that was filled with books from the floor up to the ceiling. We had three different sets of encyclopedias, two of them were big, heavy adult versions but my favorite was a children’s version. They had beautiful, bright yellow covers and every volume was loaded with colorful pictures and creative stories about everything from A-to-Z.

I remember frantically pulling them from the shelf onto the floor and spreading them out, trying to decide what kind of amazing story I was going to write. Looking back, that was the first time I was overwhelmed with the possibilities. I just couldn’t decide.

These were the days when mom made dinner every night and it was ready at five O’clock. My sister and four brothers and I would all be seated at the table waiting for my dad to come home. He owned a pet shop downtown right next to a homemade candy store. He always wore a big, tan trench coat with big pockets. Sometimes he would bring us candy in those big pockets and sometimes he would surprise us with a puppy or a kitten that we were allowed to play with for the night and then he would bring it back to the store in the morning. Yes, my childhood was charmed.

After dinner, my dad noticed all the books scattered all over the floor in the living room and obviously wasn’t very happy about that. I told him what my dilemma was, I just couldn’t think of what to write. That’s when he suggested I write about Burma-Shave. I had no idea what that was, honestly it sounded kind of boring. Little did I know that it was an extensive advertising campaign that was introduced in 1925 by a shave cream company called Burma-Vita that most certainly shaped the future of advertising.

He told me of how it all started because a fellow named Alan O’Dell was trying to sell Burma Shave. He came up with the idea of posting four or five signs, usually 100 ft apart, so drivers would read the signs gradually as they drove. I saw his eyes light up and a smile on his face as he remembered the fond memories of reading the creative and catchy puns one by one as they drove along the highway. He told me about how they were painted on colorful boards, how some of them were relatively close together and some of them seemed to stretch on for miles. He said at their peak they became the second highest selling brushless shaving cream in the US.

Burma-Shave literally entertained people driving down the highway for decades. It really was an unique art form to make comical wordplay that could make people laugh and cringe at the same time. Here is an example of a few of the signs: To the thief that took my antidepressants, I hope you’re happy. My wife got a job at the zoo, she’s a keeper. Never iron a four leaf clover, you don’t want to press your luck. Police toilet stolen, they have nothing to go on. If your nose goes on strike, pick it. This went on up until the late 1950’s, then they sold the company to Phillip Morris in 1963.

Burma Shave was very popular for many years but after its decline it faded into the forgotten past. To me personally, it was the catalyst that started my long love and journey in writing. I wish I had kept that paper I wrote back in fifth grade. As far as Burma Shave’s contribution to shaping the future of advertising, they not only entertained and delighted people for decades they were the introduction to billboards.

Have you ever heard the pop song that came out in 2016 by Carly Rae Jenson, “Call me maybe”? That was actually one of the Burma Shave signs along Route 66 sometime in the 1950’s. Hey, I just met you…and this is crazy….but here’s my number…so call me maybe.

Although Burma-Shave’s advertising is truly a lost treasure, I’m told replicas of their signs can still be found along Route 66 in Arizona. I am so thankful that my dad shared his wonderful memories of it, I was only two when the company was sold and the entertainment of Burma-Shave had ended. Just another precious piece of American history that portrayed the wit and humor of our wonderful Country.

Don’t pass cars….on curve or hill…if the cops don’t get you….the mortician will…Burma Shave.

- Janine Peterson