Frank Rowsome

I loved this, I really did. I am of an age (ahem) to remember Burma-Shave signs in their original habitat. I clearly remember riding along lonely Montana highways with my siblings fighting to read the little red signs out loud. (I also remember looking out the back window to read the signs on the other side of the road...backwards.)

The book is short, with an adequate history of the advertising thinking behind the iconic signs, an interesting examination of the various classifications of sign sets, and the sad examination of what led to the end of it all. As I said, it's short (68 pages) so it doesn't get deeply into the theories of advertising. But that's fine. It may be there wasn't any deep theorizing in this campaign. It was fun, it was cheap, and it worked.

To me, the best part of the book was the appendix. There is listed every single jingle ever used! (It took 50 pages) And yes, I easily found the ones I knew. Gave me a warm 8 year-old-in-the-back-seat feeling.… (meer)