How does British Petroleum, which branded itself BP (Better Petroleum), overcome its Bad Publicity and solve its Branding Problem?
One thing the company could do is rebrand and switch back to using the name Amoco, which the Bad Parent-company bought in 1998 and eventually absorbed.
Originally founded as Standard Oil Company in 1889 by John D. Rockefeller, Amoco was later absorbed into the American Oil Company founded in Baltimore in 1910 and incorporated in 1922 by Louis Blaustein and his son Jacob. While most oil companies were switching to leaded gasoline during the mid-to-late 1920s, American Oil chose to continue selling its premium-grade lead-free gasoline, decades before the environmental movement of the early 1970s led to more stringent auto emission controls.
If BP (Better Punished) does reclaim Amoco, it will doubtless look to its legacy of corporate identity. Amoco’s logo was originally designed in the ’20s by Lucian Bernhard, and later transformed into the Standard logo (not designed by Bernhard).
Since BP may not be able to afford a new logo, here are some of the vintage Amoco logo applications you may be seeing at a gas station near you.
