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Always Look on the Right Side
By David Sumner-Smith | February 8, 2008
Burma Shave was one of the world’s first brushless shaving cream manufacturers. Burma Shave signs were precursors to modern billboard signs on America’s earliest roads, arranged like slide packs down the byway, each sign contained a line to some not‑so‑witty rhyme.
They were an interesting diversion from long drives, provided outstanding brand recognition, and began to spring up all over the country throughout the mid-twentieth century. Each sign showed one line of a four-part rhyme leading up to the last sign which concluded cleverly with “Burma Shave.”
Said farmer brown
Who’s bald on top
“Wish I could rotate the crop”
Burma Shave
or
She put a bullet
through his hat
But he’s had closer
shaves than that
with Burma Shave
So folks would drive down the road passing billboards on the right side. Some billboards in context (Strawberries 100 feet ahead) and some not (Burma Shave? What about the wife and kids?), definitely not a response to a search. They couldn’t click on those signs to get more information or open a map. They couldn’t send the information to their nephew across the country, nor could they read reviews of the farmer’s market before they pulled over.
Driving through a small town, they might go right under a banner ad too, “Bingo Tonight 5:30 to 9.”
Too much excitement! Those were the days I guess.
Things change and things stay the same as the cliché goes. Navigating on the Internet, we still get things popping up randomly in front of us, but the popups won’t dent our fenders or become suddenly flat and gooey.
On our travels, in traffic, we are still ducking under banners and trundling down the Web page. We open the Internet with a destination in mind, glancing at the sponsors links on the right to see what they can add to the quality of our journey. Maybe someone should create an algorithm that delivers rhyming sponsors links.
Topics: Advertising |