Death of the Amoco Brand

[Tannerman]

I probably wasn't the only person who was bummed when British Petroleum bought Amoco in 1998, resulting in the huge BP infusion in the United States. It was the start of the death of the Amoco brand, unfortunately.

Final Amoco Sign Logo
(Source: BrandsOfTheWorld.com)


Pre-Merger BP Station Logo
(Source: BrandsOfTheWorld.com)

Amoco Oil Corporation was founded in 1889 by John Rockefeller, being first incorporated under the name Standard Oil of Indiana. This was required due to the antitrust breakup of Standard Oil.

Pre-Merger Amoco Pump Logo
(Source: BrandsOfTheWorld.com)

(What ever happened to all these antitrust movements? It seems like we don't care about them anymore. AT&T, anyone?).

Post-Merger BP Amoco Logo
(Source: BrandsOfTheWorld.com)

The newly formed British Petroleum/Amoco combination was called BP Amoco. Originally it was planned to convert all U.S. Amoco BP stations to the Amoco brand, while the rest of the world would have their stations converted to BP. However, those plans apparently went out the window and the BP name was chosen to take over the world!

Current BP Logo
(Source: BrandsOfTheWorld.com)

The new brand for BP didn't totally kill the Amoco name, however. It was used as a tag denoting "Amoco Fuels" on all the pumps and signs, probably to put folks at ease with the change in branding. Of note was that the original red/white/blue color scheme was kept, with the addition of "BP green".

Note the "Amoco Fuels" branding
(Source: Google Images)


The "Amoco Fuels" branding at night
(November 2005, Appleton, WI)


All horizontal "Amoco Fuels" sign
(December 2005, Hoffman Estates, IL)

However, recently, I've seen stations dropping the "Amoco Fuels" brand entirely, in favor of a diluted "Amoco Ultimate" panel, completely composed in BP colors.

New "Amoco Ultimate" branding
(March 2006, Chicago, IL)


Green and gold colors dominate
(March 2006, Chicago, IL)

The Amoco name has been reduced even more. My gut is that it won't be long until the "Amoco" element is gone forever and you'll just see this branded as "BP Ultimate". Another famous brand bites the dust!