I've been interested in the psychology of advertising since I heard on the radio, at about age twenty, the ploy the tuna industry used to sell canned tuna. Since canned salmon had been around for awhile before canned tuna hit the shelves, the tuna was met with indifference and sales were slow. They picked up dramatically when tuna was advertised as guaranteed not to turn red in the can!
Some pretty artwork went into advertisements and labels for products in the past..
Citrus producers on both coasts competed for consumer confidence..
I can actually remember cans of vegetables on the shelf bearing this label....
I love this precursor to the Marlborough Man even if tobacco is bad for you!
And who among us oldsters can forget the Burma Shave signs along the major highways. They were rhymes with each line on a separate sign so you read them easily as you drove past. Some advertised the shaving cream and some preached safety, but all were an amusing distraction from the boredom of a long automobile trip.
Some examples:
Car in ditch
Driver in tree
The moon was full
And so was he.
Burma Shave
**************
Speed was high
Weather was not
Tires were thin
X marks the spot
Berma Shave
***************
At intersections
Look each way
A harp sounds nice
But it's hard to play
Burma Shave
****************
I remember this one well. It was somewhere between Ashfork and Kingman on old route 66.
Around the curve
Lickety-split
It's a beautiful car
Wasn't it?
Burma Shave
I guess all we can do in our lives is beware of the slick advertisements and be aware that not turning red in the can does not necessarily equate with a superior product.
8 comments:
How sweet, the "violet perfumed for toilet uses".
They might have placed the following verse under it, a slight variation of Cicely Mary Barker's "Dog-Violet Fairy":
The Violet Perfumed Toilet Fairy
The wren and robin hop around;
the primrose-maids my neighbours be;
the sun has warmed the mossy ground,
where spring has come, I too am found:
The cuckoo's call awakened me,
my place the perfumed toilet be.
Olivia, that sweet verse is perfect!
I used to wonder why I could never read the Burma-Shave signs, even though I taught myself to read around 4 years of age. Mom always read them to us, but the answer finally occurred to me--I was as blind as a bat, and my sister was almost as bad. But, I sure remember them. A lost art form, to be sure.
Indeed, there's something about the old ads -- maybe it's that they were done more naturally, by the seat of the pants and gut instincts, rather than the studied, contrived product of an MBA and several focus groups. BTW, there is some excellent art work from old wooden fruit lugs at The Apple Pan. (Apple containers, of course.)
This post really made me smile. I dont think we ever had those Burma Shave signs in New Zealand. Billboards were not very common when I was young.
OSD, they were fun, and as you say, an art form.
GJ, you're onto something there.it all seems too contrived now..I do love the charm and inherent simplicity in the old ads..
Thanks Meggie:) We had billboards galore in the fifties, but not many now.
I'm a little too young to know of any of these advertisements but I sure did enjoy your post.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to return to the days of artistic, uncluttered packaging? And Burmashave!! Those signs used to be such fun to encounter on trips!
Thanks for some good memories.
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