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Burma-Shave Revives Sign Campaign
Burma-Shave Revives Sign Campaign
By David Reed
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 1997; 6:17 p.m. EDT
VERONA, Va. (AP) -- American drivers
Once traveled miles
Past catchy signs
That brought them smiles.
Burma-Shave.
Nearly 30 years have passed since the little signs bearing the
Burma-Shave rhymes were removed from the nation's roadsides.
Now, Burma-Shave is trying to make a comeback with an advertising
campaign that harkens back to the era when ``the verse by the side of
the road'' was part of popular culture.
A series of 30-second television commercials for its parent, the
American Safety Razor Co., starts this week on CNN and ESPN. The ads
will herald a new line of Burma-Shave products that began arriving in
stores this summer.
And the signs will also be making a comeback, using old rhymes and
riddles along with some new ones, the company said Tuesday.
The new signs will be erected along highways in more than a dozen states
and in baseball parks across the country.
The original signs began appearing in 1926. Over the years, there were
more than 600 jingles, appearing on clusters of small signs, spaced 100
feet apart on straight stretches of road and ending with the name of the
sponsor.
This was one of the first:
``Does your husband
``misbehave
``grunt and grumble
``rant and rave
``shoot the brute some
``Burma-Shave.''
By the early 1950s, there were 7,000 sets on display in 45 states.
The Burma-Shave phenomenon was even celebrated in a book, ``Verse by the
Side of the Road: The Story of Burma-Shave Signs and Jingles.''
However, drivers soon took to the new high-speed interstates and
wealthier competitors like Gillette started advertising on television.
In 1963, Burma-Shave became part of American Safety Razor and it stopped
making the brand. By the late 1960s the signs were gone, said James
Heim, the company's senior vice president for consumer products.
But now American Safety Razor is trying to take advantage of Burma
Shave's nostalgic fame.
``The name was already out there with a positive image,'' said Jennifer
White, the advertising account supervisor at Abramson Erlich Manes, the
Washington advertising agency that produced the TV spots. ``We just had
to capitalize on that.''
The target audience the agency came up with is men 45 years and older
who make $75,000 a year or more.
``They are guys who were children when they first saw the Burma-Shave
signs,'' Ms. White said. ``It was a time of happy memories, family
vacations and playing games in the back of the car, trying to guess what
the next line would be.''
The new commercial features a couple driving a 1958 Chevrolet Corvette
along a picturesque road winding past a new set of signs:
``You don't have a care
``You don't have a worry
``You've reached a point
``Where you don't
``Have to hurry.
``Burma-Shave.''
© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press
"THERE WILL BE NO REAL DEMOCRACY IF WE CAN'T GURANTEE THE RIGHTS OF THE
MINORITY ETHNIC PEOPLE. ONLY UNDERSTANDING THEIR SUFFERING AND HELPING
THEM TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS WILL ASSIST PREVENTING FROM THE
DISINTEGRATION AND THE SESESSION." "WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THEIR
STRENGTH, WE CAN'T TOPPLE THE SLORC AND BURMA WILL NEVER BE IN PEACE."
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