Here in SF, I can think of at least one “Standard” gas station. If you don’t read the familiar blue/white marquee, then you probably wouldn’t even notice it wasn’t a Chevron. (Van Ness/California-ish)
There’s also a McDonald’s on Market Street that has a neon “Standard” sign, a fake (or refurbished?) gas pump, and a Standard gas station motif throughout. Very strange.
And “Roxxon” sounds way more sinister than “Rosso”.
(geeky I know)
Here in central MD, we had both BP and Amoco stations. The name BP went away, and they all became Amoco’s. Maybe it’s a regional thing.
They’re all over the place (in Canada), as you may have noticed. I had long thought they were a Canadian company from two clues: the connection with ‘Imperial Oil’ (Sounded like an unlikley brand name for an American company) and the semblance to the French essence, meaning (usually), fuel, specifically gasoline. Being used to businesses in Canada trying to make up names that work in both English and French, Esso fit very well.
I heard that Esso discovered their name meant no go in Japanese. That come from my bro0ther who worked for them in the seventies.
It is only Chevy Novas that won’t go with Esso in them.
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A great illustration of the ways that urban legends mutate over the years.
There was a story that the Chevy Nova didn’t sell well in Spanish-speaking countries because no va means “no go.” That’s idiotic, and it’s hard to tell whether it started as a joke or whether people actually believed it.
Of course, I also can’t be sure if zelskid was just making a joke, too. That’s the problem with joking about idiocy; it’s a subset of Poe’s law.
One of the things that was odd for me as an American was to go to Canada and see the Esso stations - they had the same color scheme/livery as Exxon, but it was called something different. It was one of a few subtle differences that let me know I wasn’t in America anymore.
Interestingly enough, the Esso name doesn’t seem to be fully dead in the US - many Exxon stations brand their diesel pump as “Esso diesel”. This could be a way to inconspicuously hold on to the trademark as an asset - it is my understanding that Verizon (another survivor of a breakup…) is doing the same thing with the old Bell System trademark. They quit using it as a primary branding image/identity back in the late 90’s (ish), and transitioned to sticking it inconspicuously on repair vans and on payphones seemingly almost as an afterthought. The idea is that if they decide to bring the Bell System logo back as part of a re-imaging or marketing gimmick, they can claim legally that they never stopped using the trademark, and there is a principle in US law that if you abandon a trademark it becomes fair game for others.
BP (who bought Amoco) seems to be doing something similar - their premium gas is branded “Amoco Ultimate” even though the rest of the station is labeled BP. Thus they can keep the “Amoco” name as an asset.
I thought it just sounded cooler.
BTW My first “real” job was working for a sign company that got a contract to change 725 of those signs.
That’s just not true. Esso-branded stations are fairly common here.
http://www.emg-ss.jp/ss-search/
I can’t think of a common word or expression that sounds like “Esso” and means “no-go”.
You just cut/paste that spiel don’t you?
put a zombie in your tank.
Esso had trouble when people though that tigers were being hunted down to provide fuel additives. It was a public relations nightmare. ExxonMobil contributes to Save the Tiger Fund in order to remove that lingering perception.
Hope so. Seems awfully silly not to.
