Large-scale I Like Ike Button debuting in June

Abilene is adding to its “World’s Largest” collection by adding a button. The Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau is organizing the creation of the World’s Largest I Like Ike Button.

The button will debut sometime in June, said Julie Roller Weeks, director of the bureau.

“Every single person who comes into the visitors center, I’m really not exaggerating, tells us ‘I had one of those buttons,’ and you ‘oh and ah’ like it’s the most rare thing ever,” Weeks said. “There’s such an affinity for it, whether they inherited it from their grandparent or they had it as a first generation and they voted for Ike, or picked it up at an antique store. They love that button.”

The button will serve as an addition to Eisenhower-themed attractions in town. Weeks said the button will attract and keep people in the downtown area and be a photo opportunity.

Currently there is no large-scale I Like Ike button in existence, Weeks said.

The button will be located north of Little Ike Park on the strip of grass east of the parking lot, Weeks said. The button will probably face east. The location was planned for in the city’s master parks plan. While she would not share the size of the buckle, she did say it is smaller than Abilene’s World’s Largest Belt Buckle.

The button is following up on the marketing success of the World’s Largest Belt Buckle, which was erected at the end of 2022. Weeks said the bureau will probably not replicate the marketing success of the buckle because of how perfect the timing of the buckle’s construction and the promotion video featuring actor Jefferson White who performed in the, at the time, recently released television show “Yellowstone.” The button is a smaller project that will support the attraction strength of the buckle and Abilene in general.

“If you go to (Washington) D.C. and see the Eisenhower Memorial, it starts with little Ike and it finishes with president Eisenhower, so I feel like ours is going to kind of mirror that because we have little Ike at Little Ike Park and north we’ll have President Eisenhower with the I Like Ike Button.”

Jason Lahr of Fluters Creek Metals Works, who created the World’s Largest Belt Buckle, is working on the button.

To help promote the button, Weeks said the bureau will be updating their billboards along Interstate Highway 70 which predominantly feature black and white pictures of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower to include the button. Nowadays, not everyone will recognize the Eisenhowers by picture alone, so adding the button to the billboards will help drivers recognize them.

The bureau also placed lawn signs around the city that mesh Eisenhower’s slogan with Abilene’s history and attractions such as “I Like Cowboys” and “I Like Chocolate.” These signs will be taken down eventually, Weeks said. She hopes the signs stay up for this year’s presidential elections.

While Weeks does not know the final cost of the button, she does know it costs “substantially less” than the belt buckle. The bureau with their own funding, state grant and donations spent about $55,000 for the belt buckle’s construction and marketing.

To help pay for the buckle, the bureau is selling coins that look like I Like Ike buttons for $34, priced because Eisenhower is the 34th president from the 34th state in the union. Coins can be purchased at the Abilene Visitors Center at 201 NW 2nd St., by phone at 785-263-2231 or online via www.WorldsLargestIkeButton.com.

The term “I Like Ike” was used in both of Eisehower’s presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956. According to the National Museum of American’s history’s website, the slogan was used by the Republican party before the 1952 election before Eisenhower decided to run as a Republican. Disney Studios created a jingle and animated ad around the slogan.

To learn more about the upcoming World’s Largest I Like Ike Button, go to abilenekansas.org/blog/2024/05/02/abilene-prepares-to-honor-its-hometown-leader-in-a-big-way.