June 23, 2016: A Look Back in Time – 1940s Superman Gasoline Ads

When you get right down to it, superheroes make the perfect pitchmen. They’re trusted servants of the public good who are always on the side of goodness and morality, but they’re also wholly owned by corporations that are usually willing to use that fictional integrity to market pizzas or credit cards. That odd disconnect occasionally leads to some pretty weird stuff, and rarely are they weirder than in a series of ads from 1946 in which Superman endorsed Conoco’s N-Tane Gasoline.Recently unearthed by artist JON MORRIS at his Tumblr, the ads are weird not because of the product Superman is endorsing, but by the approach, which claims the gas is so good that Superman will be jealous of you for buying it. It’s… pretty weird.