The Verse by the Side of the Road by Frank Rowsome Jr.

But what does an ancient ad campaign have to do with the present? Well, everything. Farmers who’d hosted the signs for decades said they felt like they were losing an old friend. The content lived on through 1963, when the company was sold and the signs were taken down. Burma-Shave enjoyed radio and television airtime, newspaper coverage, and more. This early “crowdsourcing” was so successful the Odells couldn’t keep up with them all – some of the contests drew as many as 50,000 entries – and they had to bring in help.Īs the years passed, the buzz continued. Their next big idea was an annual contest with a prize of $100 for any they used. Writing content for all these signs started to become a challenge for Allan and his brother Clinton, who were writing all the verses. They sang songs, shouted them out, read them backward and memorized their favorites. As the signs spread across the country, travelers invented games to go with them. Talk of the verses spread like wildfire, and soon folks found themselves addicted, searching the road ahead for a glimpse of those entertaining red-and-white signs. That was more time and attention than any casual reader was estimated to be spending on content in a newspaper or magazine advertisement of the day.

Multiplied by six signs, the message took 18 seconds to read. At 35 miles per hour, it took a carload of people three seconds to read each sign. Even the roads themselves were new, and Americans had never before experienced such mobility.Įach Burma-Shave installment consisted of a verse spread across six signs spaced at equidistant intervals alongside strategically chosen travel routes. The very idea of traveling in a car was brand new and suddenly possible for many, thanks to Henry Ford and his affordable Model T. It was an amazing time in our nation’s history. Which makes it worth a look for today’s content marketers. The content they created became one of the greatest stories ever told in advertising, and to this day it still holds a place in the hearts of millions for the conversations it started.

His first signs netted the company its first repeat orders, and by January the Odells found themselves generating content for their new sign shop. If a series of roadside signs could get people to pull into a gas station, maybe the same strategy could be used to sell a product. Company President Leonard Odell needed a better way to gain traction for his revolutionary new brushless shaving cream.

The year was 1925, and the salespeople could hardly give it away. Once upon a time, there was a little-known product called Burma-Shave.

The Verse by the Side of the Road by Frank Rowsome Jr.