esso – One Man And His Mustang

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During the last car show of the season a couple of weeks ago I decided that I should spend my ‘pocket money’ on a couple of goodies to prop up my fledgling memorabilia collection. Each show I allocate myself a certain amount of money to take with me for things like memorabilia and car cleaning products etc. If I don’t limit myself I would just spend it on loads of stuff that I really didn’t want in the first place, or on dubiously prepared junk food. I have my credit cards with me just in case I need something worthwhile of course, but cash is king at these shows and you can do a bit of bartering for the best prices.

So my first purchase was the sales brochure for all the ’66 Fords’. I have attached a link to the full brochure here, or can be found under the Articles Menu/Press & Promotional Items on the header. This is an original brochure in fantastic condition with no creases. The staples have gone a little rusty, but what do you expect for fifty-two years old?

The pages are vibrant and full of the classic sales talk of the time like, ‘Stereo sonic Tape System’ and ‘Automatic Speed Control’. This is just little selection of a couple of pages from the brochure to give you a flavour of stepping back in time.

My next item was this great little ‘Ford ’66’ lapel pin. It looks old and feels old, but I’m not sure it’s vintage though. I got myself a nice little deal though as I am now starting to see the same guys selling the memorabilia a bit more often now.

At another show I purchased some Ford tie/hat pins that started my collection of which was these three. I mounted them into a little piece of cardboard to stop the pins getting damaged and keep them together for now, until I find a better storage solution that is.

I have tried to research these lapel/hat pins without much luck so far, so if anybody can point me in the direction of some information or history about them I would be very grateful.

When I was very young I remembered some adverts by Esso. Those ads featured a nameless Tiger, with the slogan that started in 1959; ‘Put a tiger in your tank’.

The various ads run for many years up until the oil crisis in the ’70s where Esso also changed its global name to ‘Exxon Mobil’. There was a set of six tie pins issued and this is the full set.

That ‘Tiger’ campaign remains close to my heart as my dear ol’ Grandfather always used to take me on his rounds then to the Esso station and fill up his lorry on the way home. Some of my earliest memories when I wasn’t even in double figures of age. He would often come out with something cool with the tiger on it, and some tokens to save up for a toy, key-ring or poster of some sort. I just loved this poster at the time.

A little bit of trivia for you;

Exxon Mobil contributes $1 million a year to support the Save the Tiger Fund, which helps conserve Asia’s remaining wild tigers.

My memorabilia is around Mustangs and ’60s Fords for obvious reasons. But, I find myself being drawn back to the things I once had as a kid! There is no logic to my collection strategy, even that is the wrong choice of word I feel. Who knows what I might buy from eBay next!

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Many moons ago….

When I left school I took a four-year apprenticeship in Lithographic Proofing, that was hand feed pre-production runs of no more than twelve copies. Sadly that trade died with the onslaught of computers. As a result of my proud trade that took me years to master, I have seen the usual adverts for hair products, cigarettes, perfume, vinyl record sleeves, video cases, jewellery, auction houses promotional posters, books and various posters. Some of them never went to press but most did. The advantage is that I still have some of those posters for Rolls Royce, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Dean, Ayrton Senna, Mac Trucks, Ford etc. I mention the background history for a reason, I have always loved rare posters and photos and kept what interested me especially the cars stuff as I have always been a petrol head since I can remember. Why, I’m not sure, I was aways considered the black sheep of the family because of it as everybody else liked football (soccer). From those early days I had my bedroom wall covered in the posters of cars and some I put in frames. A few days ago I wasn’t feeling too good, so I was hunting around on the net for images of rare Mustangs. Yeah, I found some good pics, but what caught my eye was these old adverts that Ford came up with for their Mustangs. I’m not sure with all the politically correct brigade out there now that they could get away with some of them today. What struck me was the way that the times have changed, “featuring all vinyl interiors” and the like. I just had to share these, due to the age and perhaps not so good scans of them they are difficult to read, but you get the idea though. I did try and get better copies but without much luck. Perhaps a little self-indulgent on my part, but hopefully they can be appreciated for what they are, a little piece of history of a great car. I wonder if anybody can remember these adverts at the time and maybe had them on their walls. I am also looking to do my garage up with some old vintage metal signs, you know the sort, Champion, Michelin, Ford, Shell, Esso etc, I just have to keep my eyes open in the antique shops, but I havn’t had much luck so far. I hope you like them as much aa I do.

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