by: Geoff Ficke
The Famous Marketing Concept Created by Burma Shave Can Be Applied in New Ways Today
Lavoris Mouth Wash, Adams Chewing Gum, Serutan Tonic, Rose Milk Body Moisturizer, Ipana Tooth Paste and Burma Shave were brands that were once successful and well known. Each of them experienced a precipitous decline as consumer preferences changed and they did not adapt and evolve. The consumer franchise that each built has largely been forfeited, except for Burma Shave.
The Burma Vita Company originally introduced a liniment based on ingredients that supposedly came from Burma and Malaysia. Sales never took off. In an effort to find a more mass market product the Company introduced a brushless shaving cream called Burma Shave in 1925. The shaving cream was not particularly unique or different from other products of the time. The Company knew they needed a Marketing Hook to drive sales.
The 1920’s was really the first decade that the automobile culture took off in the United States. Henry Ford’s Model T sold in the millions of units as he drove prices down by utilizing mass production and perfecting assembly line techniques. States and cities built roads so that car owners finally had passable all-weather streets and highways to traverse in their new horseless carriages. The roadside service culture was just beginning with restaurants, motels and filling stations springing up to accommodate the newly mobile population.
Clinton Odell, the owner of Burma Shave, saw an opportunity to promote his new shaving cream. He created the Burma Shave roadside recurring billboard advertising campaign. For anyone who travelled rural highways in the middle years of the 20th century the ubiquitous Burma Shave advertisements were quirky, humorous, cheeky and memorable; all of the elements that make for successful Advertising, Marketing and Branding campaigns. From 1925 until the early 1960’s this strategy made Burma Shave the second best selling shave cream product in the United States.
At its height the Burma Shave billboard campaign consisted of some 600 sets of six spaced billboard signs that consistently rhymed and created curiosity in car passengers as to what the punch line for each series would be. As years passed some of the series would be topical such as a series about Drunk Driving or World War II. Here are several examples.
Don’t Stick/Your Elbow/Out so far/It might go home/In another Car/Burma Shave
A peach/Looks good/ With lots of fuzz/But no mans peach/And never wuz/Burma Shave
Past/Schoolhouses/Take it slow/Let the little/Shavers Grow/Burma Shave
This classic Marketing and Advertising strategy became doomed as cars became faster, road surfaces improved to accept higher speeds and the interstate highway system was completed and rural roads were largely by-passed by thru travelers. Philip Morris bought Burma Shave in the 1960’s and legal counsel advised the new owners to discontinue the program for liability reasons. The Burma Shave recurring billboard remains a beloved piece of Americana for many older Americans. Burma Shave is still sold in thousands of stores as a budget product.
A number of very successful modern brands have adapted a variant of the Burma Shave strategy. Billboards are still popular advertising vehicles. However, the cost and permits needed to return a Burma Shave-type recurring advertisement on multiple equidistant signs would be prohibitive. Print and television are the best vehicles available today to reprise a contemporary version of this technique.
Progressive and Geico are insurance giants. Both have succeeded at perfecting a video version of the Burma Shave campaign. They run recurring, interconnected series of ads using memorable characters to create familiarity, quirkiness, humor and good will to their Brands. The Geico Cave Man, the green Gecko and Flo the red headed, bossy clerk have developed into cult personalities. The Scott Trade bumbling, playboy broker and the E-Trade baby are other examples of campaigns that have drafted much of what made the Burma Shave program so successful in its time and place.
My Marketing Consulting firm often employs a modern print version of the Burma Shave campaign for appropriate clients. We write and design a series of print Advertorials that are informative, soft-sell, light in tone, memorable and establish the client as to go to service provider in their space for answers on a particular topic. This works, is affordable and provides a continuity of messaging.
Years ago we had a client wishing to launch a golf product. His budget was very limited. We created a series of decals that he placed in the bottom of each of the 18 holes on a golf course. When the golfer finished each hole, he had to reach into the cup to retrieve his ball and as he progressed to and completed each holes play the player observed the advertising images and messages. The product was for sale in the pro shop. Sales boomed. The club pro, the course retail pro shop and our client all profited.
The Burma Shave campaign contained certain elements that can be adapted to your specific needs. The stream of humor, whimsy and reinforcement of your Brand awareness are enhanced by employing this strategy. Take advantage and make this work for you.
