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Oil companies

Oil companies and their use of flags
Shell
Sunoco
BP
Mobil
Chevron

Oil companies and their use of flags

One might distinguish a "legitimate" corporate flag from an advertisement:

Use: How is the flag used? Just at retail outlets as an attention-getter, or at places like corporate HQ or production facilities as a symbol of corporate identity?
Add house flags for e.g. oil companies with their own ships.
Variation: How many variations are there? Do they seem to signify anything other than a whim about what looks nice at any one place? For example, Texaco might have one flag for refineries and another for its tanker fleet, but if you see a different pattern at every other gas station, maybe none of them should be taken seriously.
One thing in play here could be ownership. Many gas stations are in franchise or similar arrangements - that could leave some room for variations.
Continuity: How much continuity is there? I'd be more favorably inclined to take seriously a design that stays the same over a period of years than something that's adopted to go with the latest ad campaign.
Or, sometimes, the latest merger.

All this leaves apart the esthetic question; I'm torn over how you handle that.
Joe McMillan and Ole Andersen, 23 September 1999

OK, let me put forth a question. Just for fun! Vex people think that it is perfectly OK for a country, lets say the United Kingdom, to use multiple versions of the same flag, only in different colored backgrounds. I.E. the UJ, Red ensign, Blue Ensign, White Ensign, RAF ensign and over a hundred local varieties of one of the above. In other words, the logo, in this case the Union Jack, on a red, white, blue, or light blue bedsheet with various local insignia tacked on. Even more colors if you count the military unit flags. And subject to changes over the years. Why not Sunoco? Or another flag flyer. Some of these companies have been around longer than most nations have been independent. And I have certainly seen both the US and Canadian flags flown essentially as decorations, or rows of decorations. Think about it.

P.S. There were no flags flying at any of the local gas stations today! Perhaps if I went to Canada I would have been more fortunate! On the other hand, I can always get a flag "fix" by going to the factory outlet shopping mall here in Niagara Falls - which flies 18 international flags along the back parking lot and 24 other international flags along the front parking lot! And if I go food shopping, the large local supermarket chain "Tops Markets" used to fly international flags from the light poles in the parking lot. Now these are just flag signs, but the flags hang inside the entranceway. Their main competitor, "Wegmans" has a dozen or so NFL flags in their entranceway. Plus all of the US State and territory flags at US Customs at any of the three Bridges to Canada, and all of the Canadian Provincial flags at Canada Customs at the other end of the bridge. So flags can be found around here!