Sonic Drive-In - Advertising

Advertising

Sonic ran its first television advertisement in 1977. During the early 1980s, actor Tom Bosley was featured in the company's commercials. One of the company's most memorable advertising campaigns, which ran from 1987 to 1993, featured Frankie Avalon. In May 1999, the company began a new campaign featuring the character Katie the Carhop.

Sonic was also involved with NASCAR. The company contracted with Richard Childress Racing in late 2000 to be an associate sponsor for Dale Earnhardt, Sr. during the 2001 NASCAR race season. After Earnhardt was killed in the first race of the 2001 season, the company continued its sponsorship with the new driver of Earnhardt's car, Kevin Harvick, through the end of the 2003 season.

In 2004, the company became more widely known nationally by advertising in television markets hundreds of miles from its nearest franchise. Improvisational actors T. J. Jagodowski and Peter Grosz have become known to American television viewers from their "Two Guys" series of commercials. Similar series of ads for the company have featured other duos of improvisational performers, including Molly Erdman and Brian Huskey, Katie Rich and Sayjal Joshi, and Emily Wilson and Tim Baltz. In 2010, national auditions were held and a new series of commercials began airing, some of which featured carhops from Wisconsin and Austin, Texas.

Slogans used by Sonic over the years include:

• "Service With the Speed of Sound" (1958)
• "Happy Eating" (1980s – on signs at many of the company's drive-ins)
• “America’s Drive-In” (1987)
• "Summer’s Funner" (1993)
• “It's Sonic Good” (2003)
• "Sonic’s Got It, Others Don’t" (2007)
• "Even Sweeter After Dark" (2009)
• "This is How You Sonic" (2011)
• “It's not just good. It's Sonic good.”