CLEVELAND – What was formerly the North American Coal Corporation has a new logo and name, NACCO Natural Resources. The new look all has its business units, each with separate logos, all under the headline of Bringing Natural Resources to Life. The company dates from 1913, when entrepreneur Frank E.MORE HERE
CHICAGO – Seven years ago, I proposed on Seeking Alpha that BP, formerly British Persia and British Petroleum and now just BP, bring back the Amoco brand as an option for franchisees. This was during the BP oil spill fiasco, which was, at the time, a big mess. They justMORE HERE
Texaco would do well to craft a strong separate identity from Chevron. For years, Texaco had separate brands like Havoline oil and Marfak lubrication, and a connection to the wealthy through its support of the Metropolitan Opera.
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MOLLUSK, Virginia – One of the most brilliant recent relaunches of a great American brand is the rebirth of Gulf. The company almost totally disappeared, the only remnant being the assorted consumer products branded with Gulf. Pictured here, a new Gulf station and pump in the tiny “town” of Mollusk,MORE HERE
In the 1970s PBS television series Crockett’s Victory Garden, James Underwood Crockett detailed popular bug-killing brands he uses. Today, some are gone and some still around. Poison brands are interesting. We still remember some of them like chlordane and DDT, even though they are no longer used. We have listedMORE HERE
MATHEWS, Va. – For brand archaeologists, the best dig site is Cracker Barrel. They are fascinating museums of America’s business history, not to mention their gift shops filled with old-time brands. Here pictured in a restaurant near Jacksonville, Florida are cans of Tidewater Long Wearing Motor Oil. We thank CatesbyMORE HERE
Summertime. Time for bugs. Poison. Almost everyone can recall the boogie man, who came down American streets. My what fun it was to go run in the mist! What brand of poison did he spray. Surely, it was not DDT back in the 1970s. That mix was largely unknown. ButMORE HERE
The news that BP stations are suffering under a growing boycott threat is natural and understandable. Consumers are frustrated with the federal government and Obama’s response. They will have to wait until November to vote. So a boycott threat is really the only thing they can do. Better than throwingMORE HERE
SARASOTA – BP is the joke at our local comedy club. The joke won’t work in print, but the line involved something about bombs and how the BP owner was wishing he had purchased some other filling station brand like Racetrack. The beaches are still pristine here in this partMORE HERE
One of the more forgotten sub-brands of a major oil company is Marfak Lubrication. Marfak was the lube brand of Texaco and Caltex. If Havoline was the actual oil, Marfak was the process. I can’t say it was actually used much as a verb, as I never heard the wordMORE HERE