There is a new issue of postage stamps out that feature reproductions of vintage circus posters from the 1900s. Marketers today could take a lesson from them.
The posters have vivid colors and few words so they stood out when plastered about a town. The circus had to rely on these and word of mouth to generate a crowd in every town. No mass advertising. No social media. No web. So posters it was.
In 1911, Ringling Brothers printed 123,000 posters to promote 143 shows — allowing them to cover entire walls with their announcements. The posters were big (usually 42 x 28 inches) and full of vibrant colors and beautiful sketches.
The circus poster is credited with being the earliest form of outdoor advertising, eventually evolving into billboards as we know them today. Until I read the background description about the stamps, I had not thought of the evolution from poster to billboard, but it puts them in a new light.
Promoters today would cringe at the idea of filling an arena using only posters. The fact that P. T. Barnum and Ringling Brothers did it night after night as they traversed the country may have been the greatest part of their show.
Learn from them that pictures really do have more power than words.
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Sources: Circus poster stamps by Steven High, Executive Director, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, in USA Philatelic magazine, 2014/Volume 19/Quarter 2
and information from the back of the Vintage Circus Posters stamps, United States Post Office