In 1925, The Burma-Vita Corporation of Minneapolis began producing signs for a campaign that would soon propel the company into the position as the number two seller of men's shaving cream. The signs were placed where motorists would see them in a staggered sequence usually along a rural, monotonous stretch of highway. Each series of signs contained rhyming lyrics, always ending the last sign with the words "Burma-Shave." Teams of employees fanned out across the country to erect the signs. By the mid 1930s, sets of signs stretched from coast to coast; only Arizona and Massachusetts lacked representation. The creators were struck by how effectively these signs captured public attention. Little did they know that this would become one of the most remembered advertising campaigns in the nation's history. The public saw the signs almost whenever they traveled, and their impact was remarkable. The breadth in placement gave rise to the notion that Burma-Shave was a national firm. It also gave the motorist and potential customer a personal, emotional relationship with the signs. The approach was so successful that in 1936, Burma-Shave became the number two selling shaving cream in America-an amazing feat for a small, Midwestern company. Another key to the success of Burma-Shave was the product, a brushless shaving cream. A sailor who was stationed in Burma (Myanmar) gave the recipe for this wonder to the company's founders at a time when many men wore beards and/or moustaches. The founders of Burma-Shave correctly saw great potential in a product that did away with the brush and mug allowing men to simply smooth the cream onto their skin. Burma-Shave remained successful until the company was purchased by a series of larger corporations beginning in the late fifties. With the development of the interstate highway system motorists began driving faster. Consequently, road signs became larger and farther away, making the small Burma-Shave signs unreadable and thus obsolete. The Burma-Shave signs came down in 1963 and product sales plummeted, so much so that in 1966 the line was discontinued. Nearly decades later, the Burma-Shave product line was re-introduced in 1997 through a division of the American Safety Razor Company. Remarkably, years after the signs last entertained the nation's motorists, many still remembered the signs and the product it sold, Burma-Shave. (All photographs and jingles courtesty of Clinton Odell.)