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| Preferring cream (gasoline) to milk |
With the exception of the Exxon tiger, cats haven’t been used much in gasoline ads, but back in 1929 there was a wave of advertising for Ethyl, the new antiknock compound developed by the General Motors Corporation.
An Ethyl Gasoline Corporation was established to promote the new product, and its ads featured a longhaired white cat, with the slogan “To make your engine purr ... use Ethyl.” The ad also noted that “the aristocratic Angora and the proletarian puss have at least one thing in common: that is, both prefer cream to milk.” The “cream” was the new Ethyl additive.
