As restaurants sought to enhance their customer experience, they turned to vintage Coca-Cola menu boards to capture the essence of this iconic brand. The 1970s were a golden age for American diners. Stainless steel counters, jukeboxes humming Fleetwood Mac, and families gathering around orange vinyl booths defined an era. But a quiet revolution was happening on the walls of these establishments, led by Coca-Cola. Enter the Marketeer Menu Boards, Coca-Cola’s mid-1970s innovation that promised versatility, style, and increased sales for restaurants of all sizes and transformed diner menus forever.

Today’s Special: Versatile Menu Boards

Coca-Cola’s trade catalog from the era proudly declared:

“Today’s Special: Versatile Menu Boards”

These were more than just static signs. Designed with interchangeable panels and crisp typography, they allowed restaurateurs to update menus daily, without needing a new board.

The Shape of Things to Come

Illustrations in the catalog showed families enjoying burgers and fries under gleaming white menu boards with prices like:

• Jumbo Burger – 90¢
• Cheeseburger – $1.10
• French Fries – 30¢

The Coca-Cola logo, in its bold red script, anchored every board, linking quality beverages to hearty meals.

Customized Boards to Reflect Personality

Themed frames gave eateries personality:

• 🐮 Cow-shaped boards for steakhouses
• 🏖️ Lighthouse motifs for coastal diners
• 🎓 Graduation caps for college cafés
• 🤠 Covered wagons for western BBQ joints

These designs weren’t just functional, they were marketing tools.

Quick Promotions, Big Returns

With tear-sheet boards and grease-pencil inserts, specials could be written and erased daily. A few of the combos featured:

• 🍗 Fried Chicken & Coke
• 🌮 Tacos & Coke
• 🍔 Patty Melt & Coke

Coca-Cola wasn’t just selling soda; they were selling higher margins and a branded experience.

Pictorial Inserts: Selling the Meal With the Drink

High-quality photo inserts showed:

• Golden fried chicken next to an ice-cold Coke.
• Pepperoni pizza paired with Coca-Cola.
• Burgers, fries, and paper Coke cups under bright diner lights.

These inserts helped even small diners look as professional as rising fast-food chains.

A Cultural Snapshot: Diners and Drive-Ins in the 1970s

Molded chairs, chrome soda fountains, paper hats, these visuals captured more than menus. They documented an era of community, affordability, and Americana, where a family meal out cost under $5.

Why the Mid-to-Late 1970s?

“Coke adds life” slogan debuted in 1976.

• TAB and Fanta branding mirror Coca-Cola’s 70s product lineup.
• Prices match pre-inflation dining costs.
• Soft watercolor illustrations echo 1970s advertising styles.

By 1982, digital menus and Diet Coke would usher in a new era. But in these pages, Coca-Cola reigned supreme.

Legacy of the Marketeer Menu Boards

Today, surviving examples of these boards are rare collectibles. Yet their influence lives on in digital menu systems and co-branded promotions worldwide.

Final Reflection: Today’s Special Forever

The Marketeer Menu Boards remind us of an age where even the simplest diner could feel modern, professional, and enticing, thanks to Coca-Cola.

“Today’s Special isn’t just on the plate, it’s on the wall, sparking cravings and sealing the deal with a Coca-Cola.”

Learn More About the Company Brand Featured in this Promotion

The Coca-Cola Company

In August of 1959, the Outdoor Advertising Incorporated (OAI) company released its latest promotion for the Fall of 1959. This promotion aimed to promote Coca-Cola through outdoor advertising and billboards featuring the iconic 1959 Coke Billboards.

The promotion was called Star Performers Build Sales for You. It 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 sell Coca-Cola to America.

By blending the 3 McGuire Sisters singers with the selling power of outdoor advertising, the Coca-Cola Company aimed to create a powerful combination for their outdoor posters.

Posters that Build Sales of Coca-Cola

The 1959 Coke Billboards became a symbol of the advertising strategies employed by Coca-Cola to capture the attention of consumers and create lasting impressions.

The promotion was targeted at Coca-Cola bottlers. An introduction to the promotion detailed the history of Coca-Cola using outdoor poster advertising.

Because their audience grows automatically with population increases, 24-sheet posters are uniquely inexpensive compared to other media.

In 1925, The Coca-Cola Company first offered Bottlers of Coca-Cola a chance to participate in an advertising medium. This medium consisted of 24-sheet posters, with total expenditure amounting to $453,886.76. This offer has never been withdrawn, and spending grew to $3,372,412.19 by 1958.

This history represents the most consistent use of any advertising medium, with expenses 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 have proven to be unique in several respects and have successfully served Coca-Cola.

For instance, they are the only medium that allows advertisers to capture consumer attention while they move from inside their homes to 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 consumers while they move about outdoors.

Additionally, their use of full-color printing presents the product in a realistic and appetizing manner.

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.

The Outdoor Advertising Incorporated company anticipated that the fabulous 1960s would see disposable income growing significantly. They believed advertising’s responsibility to secure a fair share for Coca-Cola would become increasingly critical.

Under such circumstances, they felt any advertiser would find themselves particularly obligated to consider the poster medium as one of the most effective and economical options for this task.

All Year Long Around the Clock Star Performers Sell for You

To encourage Coca-Cola bottlers to purchase 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”
• “Outdoor advertising is the selling link between home and store”

Within these taglines, they showcased six 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. This information demonstrated the benefits of outdoor performance.

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

To further support why Coca-Cola bottlers should purchase the billboards in the promotion, information regarding readership impact and depth of impression was presented.

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