Petroliana in the LoC

[jon daly]

A discussion about Amoco in Defunct Restaurant Chains led to a digression and sent me down a rabbit hole. I vaguely recall when Esso rebranded as Exxon.

https://www.loc.gov/item/93500352/

[abefroman329]

Why did they rebrand, and why did they only rebrand in the US?

[jon daly]

I'll quote Brian Troutman from this webpage:

https://www.logodesignlove.com/exxon-logo-raymond-loewy

Here's why use of the "Esso"  name was problem. Exxon, Mobil, Amoco, Chevron, and an assortment of other companies were all split from what had been Standard Oil (which the federal government broke up in 1911). Each company had the right to use the "Standard"  brand name, but only in its home territory.

Standard Oil of New Jersey came up with the brand name "Esso"  as play on the initials S.O. –as in Standard Oil. The company wanted to expand "Esso"  nationally, but other "baby Standards" –particularly Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco)–successfully argued that the name was a thinly veiled infringement on their rights to the name Standard Oil and the initials S.O. As a result, Standard Oil of New Jersey used a patchwork of other names (Humble, Carter, Enco) elsewhere in the country. To combine all marketing efforts under a single, national identity, the company had only one choice: Drop the well-known Esso name and create something that could be used without restriction.

The other Standards had "home"  and "away"  names, too. Standard Oil of California was known as Chevron outside of its home territory. Out of the upper Midwest, Standard of Indiana was Amoco. Eventually, they all decided that their 50-state-legal "away"  names were more valuable than "Standard" .

[abefroman329]

Ah. I'd heard an urban legend that it meant something rude in a non-English language, but again, that didn't explain why the company was still called Esso in other countries.

[jon daly]

I've been on an oil company jag lately because I got an oil change at a garage recently that is almost like a Texaco museum; old toys, oil cans, et cetera. I asked the service lady if they have any old roadmaps stashed away. I'm hoping & praying that they do. "Open All Night" off of Springsteen's NEBRASKA album has lyrics about a Texaco roadmap.

[Scott5114]

I just happened to be reading about Exxon on Wikipedia the other day. Apparently they wanted it to be "Exon", to make the change from Esso and Enco simpler (all four-letter names), but they found out that Nebraska had a Governor Exon at the time, and they didn't want to look like they were endorsing him. So it was Exxon with two X's.

[SP Cook]

Ah. I'd heard an urban legend that it meant something rude in a non-English language, but again, that didn't explain why the company was still called Esso in other countries.

You are conflating two stories.  SO of NJ's first attempt at a international/national brand was ENCO, which was supposed to be "Energy Company" and would have been easier to switch.   ENCO supposedly is a restroom function in Japanese.  No idea if that is true or not, but they also had copyright issues with ENCO in Texas and SO of OH, which was the most defensive of its "home rights" to Standard believed that ENCO was too close to ESSO, which they had kept out of Ohio.   In any event they went with Exxon in the USA and kept ESSO everywhere else.