Oil Company adverts on road maps from Europe

Not all petrol & oil companies issued their own road maps; some of the smaller ones could not afford to and so it made sense to consider advertising on other, commercial map issues. However, it appears that most adverts found on maps are nonetheless from the major brands of petrol - especially Shell, Esso, BP and Mobil. In particular, Mobiloil was a regular advertiser in areas where Mobilgas did not have service stations. An example of Norwegian Mobiloil advertising is shown on the Mobil page.

There are separate pages showing petrol company adverts from selected other countries in Europe:

• British maps
• German maps
• Italian maps

Austrian maps

Many early automobile maps carried advertising from businesses likely to be of use to motorists such as hotels, garages and occasionally petrol and oil companies. The example below is dated 1927 and described as "Automobilekarte für Ober- und Niederösterreich, Salzburg, Kärnten, Steiermark und Burgenland" - in other words the Western two-thirds of Austria. This slightly unusual territory is due it being produced by Universitäts-Verlag Wagner of Innsbruck in the Tyrol. As well as this map at the quite generous scale of 1:350,000, the company sold a map of the Eastern third of Austria (centred on Innsbruck) together with parts of Germany and Northern Italy. Cartographically it was quite simple, lacking physical features other than rivers, but marking gradients on roads in great detail.

The map carried 20 panels of third party advertising printed directly onto the linen rear of the maps, (which would have cost Sch7 on linen and Sch4 on paper), as well as having a pasted rear cover advert. Two of the interior adverts were from petrol companies. David Fanto & Comp., noted that it had 25 petrol Straßenzapfstellen (streetside petrol pump outlets) in Vienna, plus others in all main provincial towns, that sold its "Fanto-Benzin" and "Fantolin" special motor oils. Although based in Vienna, Fanto was broken up after the war, with the Czech firm Paramo claiming to be its principal successor.
Unusually both the other adverts came from suppliers of Shell products. An interior advert came from Tiroler Benzin- und Mineralölvertrieb Otto Gamper of Innsbruck, who promoted Shell's summer and winter lubricant grades. (Otto Gamper lived from 1893 to 1967, and later became Deputy Mayor of Insbruck, but it not known what happened to his company.) The rear cover was used by "Shell-Floridsdorfer" Mineralöl-Fabrik of Vienna to guarantee the highest output from motors using their products. It is not clear if either company was directly controlled by Royal Dutch Shell, or if they were independent distributors of Shell products.

Belgian maps

The Royal Automobile Club de Belgique (RACB) regularly produced a rather basic map of the country showing little more than road conditions, numbers and distances. On the August 1936 edition, roads were split into five categories: bonne, passable, mauvaise, impracticable and barrée. A special symbol was used for locations considered very dangerous in the rain. Perhaps unexpectedly, roads were generally worse in Flanders, where there were still extensive stretches of cobbled "pavé", than in the less densely populated Wallonia region. This map carried a large text advert for Gulflube dewaxed motor oil, distributed in Belgium by the French company Spidoléine. Post-war maps also often carried Gulf adverts, but including graphics of oil cans.

One company that is too small to have ever issued its own maps is Missil (s.a. Socomissil n.v. of Brussels), which has operated a small chain of filling stations since before 1970, and today is part of the Patigny group. This advert comes from a 1989 town plan of Zaventem and shows that Missil also distributed Agip oils.

Jugoslavia

Jugoslavia first became independent following the break up of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Poor, faction-ridden and outside the European mainstream, the oil market was largely controlled by Shell and Standard, but no oil company issues are known prior to 1945. However, some efforts were made to establish a tourism industry as can be seen from the 1933 map below from the Automobilski Klub Kraljevine Jugoslavije showing 24 black & white photos adverts for hotels around a 1:1,500,000 map of the country prepared by Jugoslovanska Tiskarna v Ljubljani. The reverse side of carries mileage tables and information for motorists in 11 languages (including Russian, Turkish, Czech and Slovak). The English version includes advice that "Roads are fairly good and...the most out of the way places are safe" as well as the instruction "At crossings in cities the following horn-signals should be given: once for straightaway (sic), twice for right turn and three times for left turn". This side also carried adverts for ferry companies and three brands of oil: Socony (Standard Oil Company of Jugoslavia), Mobiloil (Vacuum Oil Company DD) and Shell (Anglo-Jugoslavensko Petrolejsko D.D.). This map is highly unusual in carrying competing adverts for Socony and Mobiloil, which had merged in 1931.

Portuguese maps

In the 60s and 70s there were just five brands selling petrol in Portugal: Sacor, Sonap, Shell, Mobil and BP. Although Portuguese maps are known from all except Sonap, they are uncommon. The Sacor advert (left) came from a 1964 Portugália Editora Guide and Plan of Lisbon and, in English, describes the "net of about 700 SACOR's Service Stations and Refilling Stations at your disposal". After the revolution Sacor and Sonap were merged into Galp, the national oil company. This 1980 ad (right) comes from an Automóvel Club de Portugal map of the Algarve, but similar ones can be found on many ACP maps.

Adverts on British maps		Home Page	New & Updated Pages
	Brands List		Index to Special Topics
Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 2000-5