original american 1950's highway roadside "million dollar" face painted wood burma-shave advertising sign designed and fabricated by or for the burma-shave co., minneapolis, mn. the original red and white paint color scheme remains in amazing condition, considering age. surface wear and staples found along the edges. burma-shave was an american brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small, sequential, highway-billboard signs. burma-shave was introduced in 1925 by the burma-vita company, owned by clinton odell. the company's original product was a liniment made of ingredients described as coming "from the malay peninsula and burma." demand was sparse, and the company sought to expand sales by introducing a product with wider appeal. the result was the burma-shave advertising sign program, and sales took off. at its peak, burma-shave was the second-highest selling brushless shaving cream in the united states. sales declined in the 1950's, and in 1963 the company was sold to philip morris. the signs were removed at that time. the brand decreased in visibility and eventually became the property of the american safety razor company. the burma-shave sign series appeared from 1925 to 1963 in most of the contiguous united states. the exceptions were new mexico, arizona, and nevada (deemed to have insufficient road traffic), and massachusetts (eliminated due to that state's high land rentals and roadside foliage). typically, six consecutive small signs would be posted along the edge of highways, spaced for sequential reading by passing motorists. the last sign was almost always the name of the product. the signs were originally produced in two color combinations: red-and-white and orange-and-black, though the latter was eliminated after a few years. a special white-on-blue set of signs was developed for south dakota, which restricted the color red on roadside signs to official warning notices this use of the billboard was a successful advertising gimmick during the early years of the automobile, drawing attention and passers-by who were curious to discover the punchline. as the interstate system expanded in the late 1950's and vehicle speeds increased, it became more difficult to attract motorists' attention with small signs. when the company was acquired by phillip morris, the signs were discontinued on advice of counsel. some of the signs, instead of shaving-cream, featured safety messages, about speeding. examples of burma-shave advertisements are at the house on the rock in spring green, wisconsin. re-creations of burma-shave sign sets also appear on arizona highway 66, part of the original u.s. route 66, between ash fork, arizona and kingman, arizona (though they were not installed there by burma-shave during its original campaigns) and on old u.s. highway 30 near ogden, iowa. other examples are displayed at the henry ford in dearborn, michigan and the virginia museum of transportation in roanoke, virginia. measures 40 x 17 inches.