Poetry at 35 Miles an Hour: The Burma-Shave Signs
In 1926, little signs began appearing along a Minnesota highway. Drive past and a poem unfolded, one sign at a time. The last one always named a shaving cream.
In 1925, a small Minneapolis company introduced a brushless shaving cream called Burma-Shave. The trouble was that nobody had heard of it, and there was no money for big newspaper ads.
The answer was the road. As cars multiplied, Americans spent hours behind the wheel. In 1926, the first set of signs went up along U.S. Highway 65 near Lakeville, Minnesota.
A poem in six parts
Each set was six small signs spaced along the road. Read them as you drove by and you had a little poem, with "Burma-Shave" always on the last. A 1929 set read: "Every shaver / Now can snore / Six more minutes / Than before / By using / Burma-Shave."
Burma-Shave signs
- Shaving cream introduced: 1925, Minneapolis
- First signs: 1926, U.S. Highway 65, Minnesota
- Format: six small signs read in sequence
- At its peak: America's No. 2 brushless shaving cream
- Last signs: 1963
Later the signs carried safety messages too. A 1939 set warned: "Hardly a driver / Is now alive / Who passed / On hills / At 75 / Burma-Shave." People drove on to read the next verse, and Burma-Shave became the second-best-selling brushless shaving cream in the country.
Sources
- Burma-Shave (Wikipedia: 1925 launch, 1926 first signs on U.S. 65, six-sign format, 1929 and 1939 verses, 1963 end)
- Library of Congress: man with highway signs (1925)
Dollar conversions use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U (1926 annual average 17.7; September 2026: 336.94), a factor of about 19.
