Question: What roadside advertising campaign used a series of small, rhyming signs spaced along the highway to sell shaving cream?
Answer: Burma-Shave. Starting in 1926, the Burma-Vita Company lined American highways with sets of small consecutive signs, each carrying one line of a witty rhyme that built to a punchline and a final sign reading “Burma-Shave.” Spaced out for passing drivers, they turned a dull stretch of road into a game the whole car played aloud, and at their peak, some 7,000 sets dotted 45 states. The verses pitched the brushless shaving cream, but plenty also nudged drivers toward safety, like the classic “Don’t pass cars on curve or hill, if the cops don’t get you, morticians will.” The signs came down after the company was sold in 1963, and a set now lives in the Smithsonian. (See the Signs)
