The invention provides a method for preventing deposition of polymer scale on the reactor walls in the polymerization of an ethylenically unsaturated monomer, in particular, by emulsion polymerization. The method comprises coating the reactor walls with a coating composition containing, as the essential components, (A) an organic compound having at least 5 conjugated .pi. bonds in a molecule, (B) a chelating agent and (C) a metal compound capable of producing metal ions having a coordination number of at least 2 which presumably forms a metallic chelate compound with the chelating agent contributing to the formation of a strongly adsorbed layer on the reactor walls. The coating composition may be further admixed with a silicic acid compound such as a colloidal silica.