The roadside giants of the 1960s used to lure in customers.

Muffler men are the giant fiberglass statues found along American roadsides. For 10 years starting in 1962 the International Fiberglass company of California turned out hundreds of figures in a variety of styles. The first was a 20ft Paul Bunyan holding an axe for the Paul Bunyan Cafe on Route 66 in Flagstaff, Arizona but later figures included cowboys, Indians, astronauts, golfers, vikings, etc. While their heights ranged from 14-25ft tall they all tended to have a similar basic pose (because the tooling to create new poses was expensive). The basic pose was to have the arms extended to hold something (such as a car muffler, hence the nickname).

These roadside giants were sold as attention getters. Similar to Googie architecture, muffler men were built to catch the attention of drivers as they sped down the road. An American Oil gas station in Las Vegas installed a Paul Bunyan in the early 1960s and reported that their sales doubled after installing the giant. This was the beginning of an “invasion” of giants around America. The craze lasted for about a decade until the price of materials increased and the novelty wore off in the early 1970s. As for the price, a new character originally cost between $1,800 to $2,800 depending on the complexity, but today these giant pieces of Americana can fetch between $15,000 to $20,000 or more.

Added info: you can still find muffler men around America. This map from RoadsideAmerica shows you where to find them and what kinds of statues they are. You can also find more examples of these giants on Roadside Architecture as well as American Giants.