Advertisments for Motor Oil (a viscous and sluggish substance) provided two highly succulent visual elements.

The first element is the shiny reflective droplet, represented above by three stunning examples. Many people are capable of drawing this prototype,which crops up in doodles during telephone calls. But nobody has ever rivalled the PUROLATOR ads, droplets as attractive, shiny and mysteriously coloured as capsules of Cod Liver Oil.

The second element is the multi-coloured packaging available on the forecourt with its ingenious little tag to open. Shell's orange yellow tin was a delight on the page. The delight of the observer was compounded by the conceit that when the tin is poured, three separate colours cascade from the hole.

I shall add a separate section of Shell advertisements of the 1950's which use a breathless and not unattractive Capitalist Surrealism. More in due course then.

HARNESS OIL, SOCONY VACUUM, display Rockefeller Centre. 1936

HAVOLINE ASSOCIATED WITH OUTDOOR ADVENTURE 1953