Roadside billboards
Burma-Shave sign series appeared from 1925 to 1961 in all of the lower 48 states except for New Mexico, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Four or five consecutive billboards would line highways, so they could be read sequentially by motorists driving by.
This use of the billboard was a highly successful advertising gimmick, drawing attention and passer-by who were curious to discover the punchline.
Examples
This guy
who drives
so close behind
Is he lonesome
or just blind
Burma-Shave
- A peach / looks good / with lots of fuzz / but man's no peach / and never was / Burma-Shave
- Does your husband / misbehave / grunt and grumble / rant and rave? / shoot the brute some / Burma-Shave
- Don't take a curve / at 60 per / we hate to lose / a customer / Burma-Shave
- Every shaver / now can snore / six more minutes / than before / by using / Burma-Shave
- He played / a sax / had no B.O. / but his whiskers scratched / so she let him go / Burma-Shave
- Henry the Eighth / sure had trouble / short-term wives / long-term stubble / Burma-Shave
- Grandpa's beard / was stiff and coarse / and that's what / caused his / fifth divorce / Burma-Shave
- Missin' / kissin'? / Perhaps your thrush / can't get through / the underbrush — try / Burma-Shave
- A chin / where barbed wire / bristles stand / is bound to be / a no ma'ams land / Burma-Shave
- Dinah doesn't / treat him right / but if he'd / shave / dyna-mite! / Burma-Shave
- To change that / shaving job / to joy / you gotta use / the real McCoy / Burma-Shave
- Don't lose / your head / to gain a minute / you need your head / your brains are in it / Burma-Shave
- The bearded Devil / is forced / to dwell / in the only place / where they don't sell / Burma-Shave
- In Cupid's little / bag of trix / here's the one / that clix / with chix / Burma-Shave
- A shave / that's real / no cuts to heal / a soothing / velvet after-feel / Burma-Shave
- Riot at / drug store / calling all cars / 100 customers / 99 jars / Burma-Shave
- The wolf / is shaved / so neat and trim / Red Riding Hood / is chasing him / Burma-Shave
- This cooling shave / will never fail / to stamp / its user / first-class male / Burma-Shave
- The monkey took / one look at Jim / and threw the peanuts / back at him / he needed / Burma-Shave
Special promotional messages
- Free offer! Free offer! / Rip a fender off your car / mail it in / for a half-pound jar / Burma-Shave
A large number of fenders were received by the company, which made good on its promise.
- Free — free / a trip to Mars / for 900 / empty jars / Burma-Shave
One respondent did submit 900 empty jars; the company replied: "If a trip to Mars you's earn, remember, friend, there's no return." After he collected 900 more jars for the return trip, the company sent him on vacation to Moers (near Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany).
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