According to this Wiki entry, the company's roots trace back to several small oil companies in Ohio that banded together in 1887, forming the Ohio Oil Company, which was based in Lima. It was acquired by the Standard Oil Trust, but later became independent once again (thanks to anti-trust laws) – and started expanding outside of Ohio.
Ohio Oil Company bought the Transcontinental Oil Company in 1930, also acquiring the Marathon brand name in the process. The company would change its name to Marathon Oil Company in the early 1960s. Marathon Petroleum would be spun off from Marathon Oil in 2011.
But in 1953, the Marathon name was still just a brand of gasoline, and that's what we see below in the ad that appeared in the Lorain Journal back on November 6, 1953.
It's an eye-catching ad, with its strong visual right out of Jungle Book promoting its "Cat" Gasoline. The ad copy cleverly cautions drivers that filling up with Marathon "Cat" gasoline may lead to the temptation to speed.
Of course, the most interesting thing about the ad is the old Marathon logo consisting of a scantily-clad runner.
But even then, Marathon was using its great "Best in the Long Run" slogan.
Today, the Marathon Petroleum website notes that the company operates the nation's largest refining system. Pretty impressive for a company based in Findlay, Ohio (where Old Dutch Beer was brewed for many years).
5 comments:
The Marathon logo on the Guardians uniform is soooo cheesy. I used to go to the Gastown station located on the little wedge between Broadway and Elyria Ave in front of The Journal. Funny with all the Gas station advertising back then I was never 'brand' loyal. Wherever I was when I needed gas that's where I bought it. Put a Tiger in your tank, the Sinclair dinosaur, Sohio gas with de-icer, Sunoco 360 Hi-Test didn't resonate with me.
I wonder if there are still oil producing wells in Wakeman out in your neck of the woods Dan.
I remember when US Steel bought Marathon in 1981. People in Findlay on the evening news full of gratitude that US Steel had saved their town. I was working at the Mill then, a Millwright Apprentice. The purchase seemed positive for the Mill, too. Maybe the ever-present threat of layoffs would taper off. I stopped to visit a friend of mine at work a few days later, an expeditor who had a shack on the mill floor, his office. He had his head in his hands. He waved his hand at the rows and rows of binders on his shelves, full of orders. US Steel's main product was pipe for oil wells. "All cancelled," he said. Now that US Steel had decided to go into the oil business, the other oil companies were not going to buy pipe from a competitor. Within a few months, I was standing in line in a parking lot with 8,000 other guys at the unemployment office they opened just for us in the shopping center at 21st and Leavitt.
Now that's some outstanding management foresight Ken. No wonder US blue collar industries are in the rear view mirror. I'm sure those executives who made that decision were unaffected by the outcome.
Oil- and Gas-producing wells in Ohio.
https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/mapviewer/?config=oilgaswells
Zoom in anywhere you wish. A surprising number, in fact.
We didn't have no Marathon gas where I growed up. That guy in the diaper woulda been laughed right out of PennsyltuckY!
Post a Comment