Esso
| 110px | |
| Founded | 1912 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Irving, Texas, USA Calgary,Alberta,Canada |
| Products | Oil, Fuel |
| Parent | ExxonMobil |
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced /ˈɛsoʊ/ ("S-O"), it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by the Exxon brand after it bought Humble Oil, while Esso remained widely used elsewhere. In most of the world, the Esso brand and the Mobil brand are the primary brand names of ExxonMobil, with the Exxon brand name still in use only in the United States alongside Mobil.
Contents
History
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section requires expansion. (February 2011) |
In 1911, Standard Oil was broken up into seven regional companies, each with the rights to the brand "Standard" in certain states (plus a number of other companies that had no territorial rights). Standard Oil of New Jersey ("Jersey Standard") had the rights in that state, plus in Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. By 1941, it had also acquired the rights in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. In those states, it marketed its products under the brand "Esso", the phonetic pronunciation of the letters "S" and "O". It also used the Esso brand in New York and the six New England states, where the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony - Vacuum, later Socony - Mobil) had the rights, but did not object to the New Jersey company's use of the trademark (the two companies did not merge until 1998). However, in the other states, the other Standard Oil companies objected and forced Jersey Standard to use other brand names. In most states the company used the trademark "Enco", and in a few "Humble". The other Standard companies likewise were "Standard" or some variant on that in their home states, and another brand name in other states.
During the years of racial segregation in the United States and the Seven Sisters oil companies, Esso was unusual in its willingness to offer gas station franchises to African Americans.[1]
In 1973, Standard Oil of New Jersey renamed itself as the Exxon Corporation, and adopted that trademark throughout the country. It however maintained the rights to "Standard" and "Esso" in the states where it held those rights, by a token effort, by selling "Esso Diesel" in those states at stations that sell diesel fuel, thus preventing the trademark from being declared abandoned. It retained the "Esso" brand in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands until 2008, when it sold its stations there to Total S.A.[2] The ENCO brand name was still used on locations in the Midwest, which were scheduled for abandonment.[3]
United Kingdom
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Esso Blue
Esso Blue was the brand name of Esso's paraffin oil (kerosene) for domestic heaters in countries such as the United Kingdom. Their TV advertising song from the 1950s through to the 1970s was the famous "Bom, Bom, Bom, Bom, Esso Blue!" A later campaign used the well-known song tune of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" cleverly reworded as:[citation needed]
- "They asked me how I knew, it was Esso Blue, I of course replied, with lower grades one buys, smoke gets in your eyes. The non-smoking paraffin".
Cleveland
In the 1930s Esso acquired Cleveland, an independent company based in North East England. The name comes from the Cleveland Hills. Cleveland's products included a benzole blend and an alcohol blend called Discol. Both the Esso and Cleveland names continued in use until 1973, when the Cleveland filling stations were re-branded as Esso.
Canada
In Canada, the Esso brand is used on stations operated by Imperial Oil, which is 69.8% owned by ExxonMobil. Esso also provides aviation fuel services at 80 airport locations in Canada (Aviation and Avitat).
In February 2007, a combination of a fire at the Nanticoke Refinery and a strike at Canadian National Railway resulted in a shortage of gasoline at Esso stations in Ontario, driving up prices and causing shortages in competitor's stations, both in Ontario and neighbouring Quebec.[citation needed]
References
- ↑ McGee, Celia (August 22, 2010). "The Open Road Wasn’t Quite Open to All". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/books/23green.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2011-04-25. "Although Victor Green’s initial edition only encompassed metropolitan New York, the Green Book soon expanded .... The 15,000 copies Green eventually printed each year were sold as a marketing tool not just to black-owned businesses but to the white marketplace, implying that it made good economic sense to take advantage of the growing affluence and mobility of African Americans. Esso stations, unusual in franchising to African Americans, were a popular place to pick one up."
- ↑ Lett, Christine (March 11th 2008). "Total Petroleum to take over Esso's fuel business in V.I.". The Virgin Islands Daily News. Archived from the original on Mar 13, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080313160823/http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17621796. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
- ↑ Script error
External links
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