1959 Coca-Cola Outdoor Billboards Featuring the McGuire Sisters

In August of 1959, the Outdoor Advertising Incorporated (OAI) company released its latest promotion for the Fall of 1959 promoting Coca-Cola through outdoor advertising and billboards. The promotion was called Star Performers Build Sales for You. The promotion highlighted that in the Fall of 1959, the bright lights of the entertainment industry and outdoor advertising would team up as the McGuire Sisters to go outdoors and sell Coca-Cola to America outdoors. In blending the 3 McGuire Sisters singers with the selling power of outdoor advertising, the Coca-Cola Company would add another powerful combination to their current outdoor posters.

Posters that Build Sales of Coca-Cola

The promotion was targeted to bottlers of Coca-Cola. As part of the call to action to use billboards and outdoor advertising, an introduction to the promotion told the story of the history of Coca-Cola using outdoor poster advertising. In 1925, The Coca-Cola Company offered for the first time to participate with Bottlers of Coca-Cola in an advertising medium. The medium was 24-sheet posters and the total expenditure amounted to $453,886.76. The offer has never been withdrawn and the spending has grown until 1958 which amounted to $3,372,412.19. This history represented the most consistent use of any advertising medium the expense which is shared between The Coca-Cola Company and the Bottlers of Coca-Cola.

There must be some kind of reason for such consistency, and there was. Posters are unique in several respects and they have done a particularly fine job for Coca-Cola. For instance, they are the only medium that allows advertisers to hold the attention of our consumers while they move from inside their home to inside the point-of-sale. Their size gives advertisers like The Coca-Cola Company a highly desirable dominance and prestige. Their distribution allows the message to stay with all of our consumers all of the time while they move about out-of-doors. Their use of full-color printing enables the ability to present the product in a highly realistic and appetizing situation. Because their audience grows automatically with the increase in population and without the necessity for expensive promotion on the part of the medium itself, 24-sheet posters are uniquely inexpensive as compared with other media.

The Outdoor Advertising Incorporated company felt that the decade of the fabulous 1960s would see disposable income growing by leaps and bounds and advertising’s responsibility to secure a fair share for Coca-Cola becoming increasingly heavy. Under such circumstances, they felt that any advertiser would find themselves particularly obligated to look at the poster medium as not only one of the most effective media but, in all probability, the most economical one for doing this kind of job.

They went on to tough that constant vigilance on the part of poster plant operators everywhere has assured the efficient placement of panels about constantly changing traffic patterns. The panels themselves are undoubtedly where the customers can see them. What about the posters that appear on the panels? The attached brochure proves beyond any doubt that Coca-Cola posters stand out in comparison with all other subjects. Coca-Cola posters wherever they are used are doing a first-rate job of presenting strong sales appeals to customers. They felt that Coca-Cola had more than won the privilege of Coca-Cola bottlers’ serious consideration as they developed their advertising plans for 1960.

All Year Long Around the Clock Star Performers Sell for You

To promote getting Coca-Cola bottlers to buy the outdoor billboards in this promotion, the Outdoor Advertising Incorporated company used taglines like “working for you day and night,” “day after day, 30 days a month, outdoor posters are always on the job,” and “outdoor advertising is the selling link between home and store.” Within these taglines, they showcased 6 new outdoor billboards.

Outdoor Posters Create Top Level Readership

To further support why Coca-Cola bottlers should purchase the billboards in the “Star Performers Build Sales for You” promotion, information on outdoor readership was provided to show the benefits of outdoor performance.

Posters Advertising Coca-Cola Outscored Other Posters by 32% in First Half of 1959

To further support why a Coca-Cola bottlers should purchase the billboards in the “Star Performers Build Sales for You” promotion, readership impact and depth of impression information was shown.

Posters with Real Consumer Impact – The 1959 Line Up

The following outdoor poster billboards were used in this promotion.

• The Be Really Refreshed Have a Coke outdoor advertising billboard featured a bottle of Coca-Cola sitting in a field of flowers with a trademark Coca-Cola disc in the lower right corner.
• The Be Really Refreshed outdoor advertising billboard featured a woman with a brown and pink hat being handed a regular size bottle of Coca-Cola with a trademark Coca-Cola disc in the lower right corner.
• The Keeps you Rolling outdoor advertising billboard featured a man and woman at an ice skating rink drinking glasses of Coca-Cola next to a fountain dispenser.
• The Be Really Refreshed Ice Cold Coke outdoor advertising billboard featured a man and woman on a boat with a trademark Coca-Cola disc in the lower right corner.
• The Love that Coke outdoor advertising billboard featured a man and woman drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola over a heart-shaped background with a trademark Coca-Cola disc in the lower right corner.
• The Be Really Refreshed King Size Too outdoor advertising billboard featured a the same woman with a brown and pink hat being handed a King size bottle of Coca-Cola with a trademark Coca-Cola disc in the lower right corner.
• The McGuire Sisters Sing for Coke outdoor advertising billboard featured the McGuire sisters singing group each holding a bottle of Coca-Cola with a trademark Coca-Cola disc to their right.

Learn More About the Company Brand Featured in this Promotion

The Coca-Cola Company