Guy Ash's List: WK1 Discussion: Burma Shave vs Dollar Shave

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 having come "from the Malay Peninsula and Burma."[1] Demand was sparse, and the company sought to expand sales by introducing a product with wider appeal.

The result was the Burma-Shave brand of brush-less shaving cream and its supporting advertising program. Sales took off. At its peak, Burma-Shave was the second-highest selling brushless shaving cream in the United States. Sales declined in the 1950s, 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.

In 1997, the American Safety Razor Company reintroduced the Burma-Shave brand with a nostalgic shaving soap and brush kit, though the original Burma-Shave was a brushless shaving cream, and Burma-Shave's own roadside signs frequently ridiculed "Grandpa's old-fashioned shaving brush."

"Alas, Burma Shave's cute messages became a victim of technology — better shaving products came out and cars got faster, making it harder to read the signs — as well as government regulation, as the taxes on their advertising signs became prohibitive. So Burma Shave's ads fade off to that great advertising road in the sky, along with television commercials for cigarettes and such mascots as Speedy Alka-Seltzer, the Hamms Beer Bear and Joe Camel. However, reproductions of the signs currently liven up the drive on Arizona Highway 66, part of the original Route 66."

"The company was sold to Philip Morris in 1963, and all the signs were removed soon thereafter. As a testament to the campaign’s cultural significance, a set of signs was donated to the Smithsonian, where it still resides. But the brand eventually petered out. After being sold yet again (this time to the American Safety Razor Company) and then reintroduced in 1997, it never regained a hold in the market."

"Michael Dubin, the video's star, founded Los Angeles-based Dollar Shave Club with irreverence in mind. The smug cutup, who serves as CEO, studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) theater in New York City, where he learned how to wield humor to attract attention.

"People tend to remember things when they're musically presented, and comedy is a form of music," he says. "When you're launching a new business and sharing a new idea, if you can get people to remember it, there's obviously a better chance at success."

And consumers have certainly responded to Dollar Shave Club's spot.

In the first 48 hours after the video debuted on YouTube, some 12,000 people signed up for the service. Aside from some Google ads, there has been no other marketing.

What appears to be an on-the-fly, homemade spot was actually a highly planned effort, says the commercial's director, comedienne Lucia Aniello. A friend of Dubin's from his UCB days, Aniello helms Paulilu, an L.A.-based production company that has created comedy shorts for brands such as Audi, Estée Lauder and the Emmy Awards.

"This is what you get at an ad agency," Dubin says. "Not every entrepreneur has the ability to think comedically and think about their business in the way that we did."

Dubin's connections helped keep Dollar Shave Club's video production costs low; the company spent just $4,500. Aniello estimates that such a highly polished video would run most companies $50,000.

Dubin and Aniello were ruthless and unsentimental in planning the shoot. Aniello began the creative process by helping whittle down Dubin's four-page script. "If it wasn't 100 percent essential, it was gone," she says. "Every moment, every frame, everything has to have a reason or point."

Next, they wrote jokes on top of the brand-messaging bones that remained. Keeping the video silly and light, the sharp-witted duo aimed for a self-deprecating tone. "People understand brand messaging, and when you subvert that, they recognize the risk you took," Aniello says. "Learn to trust the funny. If you take a risk, you may get a reward.""