I have featured some of the Shell posters in this series on the blog before but I thought it would be more interesting to post as many of them as I could find. I rather though the range of artists was brilliant.
Shell Mex Limited appointed a new Publicity Director in 1932, Jack Beddington. His insight turned the British Shell advertisements of the 1930s into some of the classic campaigns of the twentieth century. The genius was to let artists depict Britain in their own styles, they would paint an image and whatever their style, and it would be framed by text. There would be no need for product placement, for models holding petrol cans, it was a campaign exposing the beauty and wonder of Britain and modern art. It was to inspire people to use their cars to see the nation and so use more petrol.
