By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008

The red Pegasus, Mobil’s dauntless mascot, commands the motorist’s attention wherever seen. Blazing its way into the sky on a trail of hot neon or affixed to a station facade in the form of enameled steel, it’s been a familiar brush stroke on highways like Route 66 for over fifty years. Within the category of petroleum trademarks, there has never been another corporate trademark like it and there will never be again.

SOCONY Flying Red Horse

According to the Mobil Oil Corporation, the “Flying Red Horse” was adopted as a logo in the United States shortly after the merger of the Standard Oil Company of New York and a company known as Vacuum Oil in 1931. Prior to that, the Vacuum organization employed a highly stylized “gargoyle” to identify its lubrication products. After the merger, a new identity was required to represent the joint products produced by the new refiner. After some deliberation, a majestic red steed with wings was deemed the perfect choice to symbolize the idea of speed and power for the consumers of automotive oil and gasoline.

Some historians report that the Pegasus made its first showing as early as 1911. That year, a Mobil predecessor in South Africa employed a white (outlined in black) rendition of the winged wonder to identify its refined liquids. Petroliana sources indicate that it was the Mobil Sekiyu division in Japan that first colored the four-footed equine red. During the 30s, cowboy artist (and well-known commercial illustrator) Robert “Rex” Elmer totally revamped the horse, creating a much bolder, graphic version of the friendly trotter. The naive outline of the early configuration was dropped as further definition of the head, mane, wings, legs, and tail were added. The defining borders were changed to white and the large body areas to a fiery hue of crimson.

In the decades that followed, the petroleum mascot continued to undergo a metamorphosis. The design received a subtle facelift in 1954 when the defining white lines were slightly thinned—lending the trademark a streamlined sophistication. But even more dramatic was the new direction that was taken in 1965 when the entire beast reared up, flipped over, and began flying towards the right (no doubt a direct result of McCarthyism and the “red scare” of the 1950s)! As the Mobil Oil Company entered the decade of the 70s and the 80s, the gallant red steed streaked ever skyward in a righteous—and patriotic—ascent skyward. By then, the Flying Red Horse had become permanently enshrined into the annals of the roadside service station and recognized as a true American icon.

At the same time this move towards a more democratic direction was consummated, the fanciful curves exhibited by the original Pegasus configuration were reduced to their most elemental form. With the implementation of architect Eliot Noye’s minimalist station design (with its characteristic barrel-style gas pumps, circular overhead canopies, and backlit plastic sign discs), a new level of simplicity set the pace at Mobil service stations in America. After so many years of service, the Pegasus fell behind the pack to assume a secondary position. Now, thick blue letters spelled out the word “Mobil” and replaced the equine as dominant theme. As the signature round “o” rose to prominence, the old red mare was retired to tiny pump discs and dual office signs.

Much to the dismay of those who remember seeing the familiar red horse fly along the endless miles of Route 66 and gassing up at filling stations under its wing, Mobil’s gallant red steed was corralled up on the station wall, no longer the champ. Now, rendered impotent by a combination of vacuum-formed plastic, silk-screened ink, and fluorescent tubes, it would spend its remaining days in quiet repose, reminiscing over the days when gas and oil was marketed by a whimsical cast of characters. Along the modern roadways, horses, grizzlies, roadrunners, polar bears, buffaloes, badgers, eagles, and Indian Chiefs were now forgotten trademarks of the past.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 2:27 am and is filed under American Icons, Car Culture, Gasoline Stations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.