http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Fire-King-Esso-Exxon-Tiger-Cereal-Bowls-LOOK_W0QQitemZ180154644558QQihZ008QQcategoryZ1019QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
From my grandparent's estate...
You are bidding on a set of vintage Fire-King cereal bowls from an Esso or Exxon gas station. The bowls feature a tiger face on the inside bottom, from the "Put a Tiger in your Tank" ad campaigns. These bowls were made with Fire-King's mold number 20, which is marked on the bottom. The diameter at the top is approximately 4-7/8 inches; the bottom diameter is approximately 2-5/8 inches. They are about 2 inches deep.Bowl #1 (right): Clean white glass color; tiger colors deep and distinct; 'popped bubble' flaw in top rim that feels like a chip.Bowl #2 (left): Creamier colored glass with some discolored pits on interior surfaces (factory second?); tiger colors not as deep as other bowl; no chips or bubble.
When I was 15 years old, for two of my speeches required in Mrs. Braden’s speech class, I presented short satires on advertising. One of the speeches poked fun at the ethical problem of setting up an experiment in which some children developed more cavities than others [see earlier blog on Dental Hygiene] and one speech was a narrative of juvenile delinquent boys and their nighttime car burglary of an Esso tiger’s tail; the tiger tail promotion must have reached a height of interest in Dallas in summer, 1964.
From Hidden Persuaders, 1957
The McCann-Erickson advertising agency made a study for Esso gasoline to discover what motivates consumers, in order more effectively to win new friends for Esso. The agency found there is considerable magic in the word power. After many depth interviews with gasoline buyers the agency perfected an ad strategy that hammered at two words, with all letters capitalized: TOTAL POWER.
Ernest Dichter is usually given credit for the 1959-64 Esso/Exxon “tiger in your tank “ ad campaign. Esso had used the tiger in ads in the 1930s, but the slogan and expensive advertising assault in the 1960s were apparently masterminded by Dichter. According to one source, Dichter liked the tiger because it is such a universal symbol of power, and Esso needed a global advertising plan to aid in its expansion. And Dichter, whether selling tooth paste or gasoline, was master of the branding needed to differentiate commodities.
In 1959, as tiger ads waned in Europe, the tiger came to life in Chicago, Illinois, where an advertising copywriter sat at his typewriter thinking up symbols of power for a local Esso campaign. In two minutes, a famous advertising slogan was born: Put a Tiger in Your Tank. Unlike his fierce forebears, this tiger emerged as a cartoon character - friendly, whimsical but still powerful. From his original Chicago habitat, the fun-loving cat eventually roamed Esso ads and promotions throughout the world. The tiger tail emerged from thousands of gasoline tanks. Tiger faces and stripes appeared on T-shirts, towels and other trinkets. Within five years, the tiger was so well known, Time magazine dubbed 1964 "The Year of the Tiger Along Madison Avenue." An astonishing 2,500,000 tails were [sic] sold [i.e., distributed. ][www.esso/Exxon.com]
Dichter . . . claimed to have “laid the groundwork for the symbolism” of Esso’s “Tiger in the Tank” ad campaign by decoding a patient’s dreams of fighting with a powerful animal, which he recognized as “a symbolic way of fighting and loving his father”—an insight that could be translated into a gasoline ad’s appeal to the subliminal desire to incorporate the father, or the father’s power, cannibalistically. As Dichter explained: “The “Tiger in the Tank” [w]as another worldwide, successful translation of sex into sales. A gas tank is mysterious and dark like a womb. It can be fertile or sterile. The hose of the gas pump resembles you-know-what. Rational? Who cares? The symbol of power, of virility, of strength, goes through the oddly shaped nozzle into the receptive womb and gives it power and strength. It worked practically around the world. I want you to realize that I am as amazed as the infidels are. How can such a contrived mixture between sexual allegories, mysticism, and caveman symbolism result in millions of dollars of very unmysterious cash through increased sales?”
Getting the Id to Go Shopping: Psychoanalysis, Advertising, Barbie Dolls, and the Invention of the Consumer Unconscious, David Bennett
http://publicculture.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/17/1/1.pdf
The “Tiger in Your Tank” was a fad in which the primary product was gasoline and the sideline swag was for amusement. In the early fifties, Disney had a fad marketing bonanza with the Davy Crockett coonskin hat and related paraphernalia. {See previous blog “One Man’s Dream Was Our Reality.”]
And many of us Reinhardt kids also experienced the hula hoop craze, with other Wham-O follow-up products such as the Frisbee, Slip 'N Slide, Chubby Checker Limbo dance game, Water Wiggle and others.
Fads could be marketing bonanzas for a company like Wham-O, but could not be started by advertising alone. The Wham-O entrepreneurs picked their products with care (in tests with kids, they saw that the hula hoop had a remarkable average “playtime’ per child), used much word-of- mouth, and somehow were simply in the right place at the right time. Between 1957 and 1959, Wham-O sold more than 20 million hula hoops, most at $1.98. According to one source, if extended as one piece, the hula hoops would stretch around the earth. And where did all that Marlex plastic end up? Likely in U.S. landfills.
[Did I attend a Limbo party at her home in about 1961?]
In the mid-fifties, marketing researchers such as Dichter, observing the Davy Crockett craze, theorized that crazes could be scientifically produced, but a successful craze’s causes likely were complex and unpredictable.
From Hidden Persuaders, 1957
An evidence of how big the business can be is that the Davy Crockett craze of 1955, which gave birth to 300 Davy Crockett products, lured $300,000,000 from American pockets. Big persuasion indeed.
American merchandisers felt a need for a deeper understanding of these craze phenomena so that they could not only share in the profits, but know when to unload. Research was needed to help the manufacturers avoid overestimating the length of the craze. Many were caught with warehouses full of “raccoon” tails and buckskin fringe when. Almost without warning, the Crockett craze lost its lure. One manufacturer said: “When they die, they die a horrible death.”
The problem of comprehending the craze drew the attention of such motivation experts as Dr. Dichter and Alfred Politz. And Tide magazine, journal of merchandisers devoted a major analysis to the craze.
The experts studied the Crockett extravaganza as a case in point and concluded that its success was due to the fact that it had in good measure all of the three essential ingredients of a profitable fad: symbols, carry device, and fulfillment of a subconscious need. The carrying device, and the experts agreed it was a superb one, was the song “Ballad of Davy Crockett,” which was repeated in some form in every Disney show. Also, it was richer in symbols than many of the fads: coonskin cap, fringed buckskin, flintlock rifle. Tide explained: “All popular movements from Christianity’s cross to the Nazis’ swastika have had their distinctive symbols.”
As for filling a subconscious need, Dr. Dichter had this to say of Crockett: “Children are reaching for an opportunity to explain themselves in terms of the traditions of the country. Crockett gave them that opportunity. On a very imaginative level the kids really felt they were Davy Crockett. . . “
What causes the quick downfall of crazes: The experts said overexploitation was one cause. Another cause was sociological. Mr. Politz pointed out that crazes take a course from upper to lower. In the case of adult fads this means upper-income education groups to lower. In the case of children, Politz explained: “Those children who are leaders because of age adopt the fad first and then see it picked up by the younger children, an age class they no longer wish to be identified with. This causes the older children deliberately to drop the fad.”
Both Politz and Dichter felt not only that with careful planning the course of fads could be charted to ensure more profits for everybody, but also that profitable fads could actually be created. Tide called this possibility “fascinating.” Dr. Dichter felt that with appropriate motivational research techniques a fad even of the Crockett magnitude could be started, once the promoters had found, and geared the fad to, an unsatisfied need of youngsters.
