Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

What makes a company \ a good citizen* k\_ : If Michigan is your home stale, chances are you have already seen this advertisement. Or, if you live in one of the other Midwest and Rocky Mountain states where Standard Oil Company (Indiana) products are sold, you may have seen an advertisement very much like it with the same straightforward information about what determines gasoline prices in your state. This is the type of factual, informative advertising so vital to a sound public understanding of the oil business and its products and services. Four important things that affect the price you pay for gasoline in Michigan TAXES — You might be surprised what a big chunk of your gasoline dollar goes for direct taxes placed on gasoline by federal and state governments. These taxes are largely used to build and maintain our expanding highway system and are collected from you at the gasoline pump. In Michigan the direct taxes on regular grade Standard Red Crown Gasoline total 9 8, 10 cents per gallon — equal to 42 percent of the price of the gasoline alone in mid-Michigan areas. PRODUCT IMPROVEMENT— Today's gasoline looks and smells about the same as gasoline has for years but your car can tell the difference. The Standard Red Crown you use today is higher quality, higher octane than our Premium Gasoline was only 4 years ago. Such dramatic product improvements are costly. During the past two years octane increases alone added about 25 million dollars per year to our continuing operating costs. WAGES— The money you pay for Red Crown helps, too, to pay the wages and salaries of the 52,000 men and women in our immediate "family". They are people like yourself who have had to meet rising living costs. General wage increases of slightly over 4 percent and 6 percent in 1955 and 1956 increased our costs about 28 million dollars annually. SERVICE— Your Standard Dealer is an independent business man in a keenly competitive business. A few cents per gallon mark-up is all that competition allows him if he is to attract and hold your business. This modest mark-up enables him to offer and maintain essential services for car owners. At the same time, it must help cover his many costs and earn him a fair profit. SfC WHAT MAKES A COMPANY A GOOD CITIZEN? Because gasoline is widely used and needed, its price is a matter of interest to a great many people. The communities in which we live and serve are entitled to information this company can give them on factors affecting gasoline prices. — ®— — «r — RED CROWN GASOLINE PER GALLON. .23 4/10* STATE GASOLINE TAX. 6c STATE SALES TAX 8/10e FEDERAL GASOLINE TAX 3c Modern gasoline quality represents tremendous investments in better facilities and processes, and in research. Yet in America today an hour's pay buys more than half again as much gasoline, excluding direct taxes, as it would fifteen years ago. In the last 15 years Standard Oil salaries, wages and benefits on the average have increased about 170°^. This is important to each Standard Oiler and important to the welfare of the communities where our "family" members live and work. TOTAL COST PER GALLON. ...33 2/10c The taxes you pay on gasoline — equal to 42^ of the price of the gasoline itself in mid-Michigan — help to build and maintain Michigan's expanding highway system. You pay these direct taxes whenever you buy gasoline. STANDARD OIL COMPANY (Indiana) Broadcasting • Telecasting May 13, 1957 • Page 111