Burma-Shave was a brand of shaving cream famous for its humorous advertisements during the 1920s (check out the link here to see some examples for yourself). They had a reputation sort of like Geico does today; a company known for doing unconventional commercial advertisements with their own quirky sense of style. Yet perhaps another reason for their success lies not in the content of their ads, but new trends in American life in the 1920s that emphasized more materialistic values of status and wealth. Or as sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen called conspicuous consumption; spending money on luxurious goods to flaunt the wealth and status of the buyer.
S1 – Blog 02: Burma Shave Ads and Materialism: What are the Consequences of Conspicuous Consumption?
The Forgottonia Project 