Lockheed Martin sells weapons systems to Congress and the Pentagon.  No doubt their “How” campaign need only reach a handful of web-surfing procurement and appropriations specialists to be effective.  Accordingly, these three 728x90 banner ads seem aimed exclusively at readers in DC - nationaljournal,com, washingtonpost.com among them (tearsheet). 

The ships ad debuted in January. The two planes creative debuted over this past weekend.  They link to an audio-playing web site at http://www.lockheedmartin.com/how/ How effective are they? 

Way back in the day, Burma Shave sold shaving cream using sequential roadside ads. To work their suds-selling magic, the clever bits of doggerel were spread out on four to six signboards in rhyming couplets, with a whimsical punch line. 

It helped that they used humor.  But to work, they also needed a receptive audience - one traveling at sufficiently slow speeds, on quiet roads. With the noteworthy exception of the roadside tourist trap South of the Border on I-95 (what would southbound Spring Break have been without it?), the Burma Shave method did not live to see the completion of the Interstate Highway System.  So why are its ilk are alive and well in Washington DC this month, on the web?

Are audiences at Pentagon and Congress offices slow? Or were the Burma Shave jingle writers trying to tell them something:  “Train approaching / Whistle squealing / Stop / Avoid that run-down feeling”

(National Journal reports what’s happening out on the Interstate...)