Burma Shave Safety Reminder Jingles

It all began as an ad campaign in the 1920s when the brushless shaving cream Burma Shave decided to take advantage of the open road. Burma Shave was released in 1925 by the Burma-Vita Company in Minnesota. By 1947, more than 7,000 sets of signs could be found along the nation’s roads and byways in 45 states. Burma Shave had become the second-highest selling brushless cream. But sales began to drop in the 1950s, and by 1963 the last Burma Shave sign had been posted. By 1966, all were gone from the roadways.

The signage ad campaign was composed of four or five roadside signs that rhymed their message with the last sign bearing the name of the company – Burma Shave. Signs were posted about 100 feet apart for easy readability from cars traveling 35mph. The signs were always done in capital letters because they were easier to read when traveling down the road. Drivers and passengers found the signs to be entertaining and interesting - a welcome diversion along America’s byways.

In the late 1950s the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was developed. Roadways were kept in better shape and vehicle speeds were increased making it more difficult and dangerous for drivers to try to read the signs. 

When Phillip-Morris Company took over the company in 1963, the signs were discontinued upon advice to their attorneys. Television advertising also dealt a death knell to the signs because it was more economical to write a thirty second commercial than to write, paint and post signs around the country.

For the first couple of years, the ads were rather unimaginative. Here’s a verse from 1926:

SHAVE THE MODERN WAY

NO BRUSH

NO LATHER

NO RUB-IN

BIG TUB 35ç

DRUGSTORES

BURMA SHAVE

But by the 1930’s, the puns and rhymes were everywhere along the roads.

KEEP WELL

TO THE RIGHT

OF THE ONCOMING CAR

GET YOUR CLOSE SHAVES

FROM THE HALF POUND JAR

BURMA SHAVE

By 1939, roadside safety messages began to appear all over the country and continued until the end of the campaign in the early ‘60s. Here are some that reminded drivers in  a humorous way that the Grim Reaper was never far away. 

HER CHARIOT RACED

AT EIGHTY PER

THEY HAULED AWAY

WHAT HAD BEN HUR

ALTHOUGH INSURED

REMEMBER, KIDDO

THEY DON’T PAY YOU

THEY PAY YOUR WIDOW

TRAIN APPROACHING

WHISTLE SQUEALING

PAUSE! AVOID THAT

RUNDOWN FEELING

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

THE GRASS HAS RIZ

WHERE LAST YEAR’S 

CARELESS DRIVER IS

PROPER DISTANCE
TO HIM WAS BUNK

THEY PULLED HIM OUT

OF SOME GUY’S TRUNK

AROUND THE CURVE

LICKETY-SPLIT

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL CAR

WASN’T IT?

VIOLETS ARE BLUE
ROSES ARE PINK

ON GRAVES OF THOSE

WHO DRIVE AND DRINK

HE TRIED TO CROSS

AS FAST TRAIN NEARED

DEATH DIDN’T DRAFT HIM

HE VOLUNTEERED

ANGELS WHO GUARD YOU

WHEN YOU DRIVE

USUALLY RETIRE

AT SIXTY-FIVE

PASSING CARS
WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE

MAY GET YOU A GLIMPSE

OF ETERNITY

IF DAISIES ARE

YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER

KEEP PUSHIN’ UP

THOSE MILES-PER-HOUR

HE LIT A MATCH
TO CHECK GAS TANK

THAT’S WHY THEY CALL HIM

SKINLESS FRANK

YOU CAN DRIVE

A MILE A MINUTE

BUT THERE IS NO

FUTURE IN IT

SAW THE

TRAIN AND

TRIED TO

DUCK IT

KICKED FIRST

THE GAS

AND THEN

THE BUCKET

HARDLY A DRIVER

 IS NOW ALIVE

WHO PASSED

ON HILLS

AT 75

DROVE TOO LONG

DRIVER SNOOZING

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

IS NOT AMUSING

SPEED WAS HIGH

WEATHER WAS NOT

TIRES WERE THIN

X MARKS THE SPOT

AT INTERSECTIONS

LOOK EACH WAY

A HARP SOUNDS NICE

BUT ITS HARD TO PLAY

And the one everyone remembers:

IF YOU DON’T KNOW

WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE

YOU HAVEN’T DRIVEN

VERY FAR

BURMA SHAVE

~ Joy