It’s no secret that the science of advertising has evolved in the decades since World War II. Today, ads have seconds, not minutes, to get their point across, and the average consumer has grown far more cynical to the pitch. Few modern consumers would sit through a 20-minute infomercial on gasoline refining, yet in 1948 the topic was so pertinent that Standard Oil of Indiana funded a pair of training films and a handout booklet to tell consumers about the refining process, along with the benefits of its newly rebranded Red Crown and White Crown gasoline.
Both Gasoline’s Amazing Molecules and The Inside Story of Modern Gasoline were produced by Jerry Fairbanks Inc., for distribution to Standard Oil of Indiana station owners. Gasoline’s Amazing Molecules (since lost to time) was aimed at consumers and even school children, and included an accompanying guidebook (seen here) in case budding young chemists wanted to practice refining crude oil in the backyard (or at least learn more about the process). The Inside Story of Modern Gasoline was tailored to gasoline retailers, as it mixed science with feel-good snippets on Standard Oil’s capabilities (such as cracking to double gasoline yield from crude oil and polymerization to produce anti-knock gasoline) and modern refining facilities.
The thought of a gasoline retailer booking a film showing at a civic club, school or place of business today seems unimaginable, but 1948 was a different (and perhaps simpler) time. Thanks to film historian Jonathan Boschen, who provided the scans of the accompanying Gasoline’s Amazing Molecules book and the link to the Prelinger Archives video, it’s a time we can visit – and perhaps learn a thing or two about the refining process.
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