The Go In Esso

The Esso name was primarily used by its predecessor, Standard Oil of New Jersey, after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The name Esso is the phonetic pronunciation of the initials 'S' and 'O' in the name Standard Oil. Standard Oil of New Jersey started marketing its products under the Esso brand in 1926. In most states, the company used the Enco (Energy Company) brand name, and in a few, the Humble Oil brand name. Esso Gas Stations were primarily found in the eastern United States and some states in the Midwest. By 1972, the name Esso was largely replaced in the U.S. by the Exxon brand after the Standard Oil of New Jersey bought Humble. The Esso name remained widely used elsewhere. In most of the world, the Esso and Mobil brands are the primary names of ExxonMobil, while the Exxon brand is used only in the United States alongside Mobil. The Esso brand name was discontinued in the U.S. by 1977, yet the brand name continues in Europe. Today, it is a trading name for ExxonMobil.

Note: Above, an Esso gasoline tanker, pulled by the bulldog of trucks, Mack, filling the tank at its namesake station in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1943. 

Photo by John Vachon via shorpy dot com

Put A Tiger In Your Tank

The Humble Oil Company can trace its origins to an oil gusher strike in 1901, initiating the Texas oil rush. Humble was founded in 1911 in Humble, Texas with a confusing array of names for different areas of the United States thanks to the break up of Standard Oil Company by The Sherman Antitrust Act. Forty-eight years later, Standard Oil of New Jersey acquired the company. Humble struggled for decades with what single brand name to use until 1972 when they chose Exxon. 

Humble first began marketing gasoline nationwide under two different names. First was Enco, a secondary retail brand in certain parts of the United States from 1960 to 1977, and a second brand, Esso, a concocted name for ExxonMobil, brought about by the merger between Exxon and Mobil (Standard Oil of New York) in 1999. The Enco brand was introduced by Humble in the summer of 1960 but the brand was not used in Ohio because of trademark infringement claims made by Sohio (Standard Oil Company of Ohio). Exxon later withdrew from Ohio entirely by the end of the decade except for Southeast Ohio and Columbus.

Humble's Esso brand had a successful advertising campaign in the 1960s and 1970s with, "Put A Tiger In Your Tank" featuring an oversized, illustrated tiger sitting upon or beside an automobile. Some fans took to placing a small, cuddly tiger tail under their gas cap filler door. For a thoroughly confusing Humble history, you might want to read this.

Note the 1959 Chevrolet and 1960 Dodge Dart above