Boom Boom Boom Boom - Esso Blue!

This newspaper advertisement dates from November 1960. Joe, the Esso Blue Dealer was a great little creation, introduced in 1958.

I fondly recall the TV ad jingle - "Boom Boom Boom Boom - Esso Blue!" In the first ad, the dealer is seen answering the phone to a number of people wanting to speak to "Joe". The dealer replies that he's not Joe, he's the Esso Blue Dealer.  At one point, a very sexy-sounding woman phones asking, of course, for Joe. Our dealer pal becomes tongue-tied, replying that he is the "Esso Blee Dooler". Joe himself then phones asking if there have been any calls for him. 

We later learned that the dealer was also called Joe.

According to legend, the "Esso Blee Dooler" line came about because the voice-over actor was late arriving at the recording session for a late 1950s ad at Dorland Advertising Ltd. Dorland executive Tony Solomon stepped forward, eager to get the sound balance right, and said: "Let me have a go at it." He then said "I'm your Esso Blee Dooler" instead of "Esso Blue Dealer", which caused great amusement amongst the staff looking on, and the "blooper" (as the Americans would have it) was scripted into the ad. 

The ad's jingle is etched on my mind. I first heard it as a tiny, tiny tot in the mid-to-late 1960s and the ads went on until some point in the 1970s (post-1973, but I don't have an exact year), when the Esso Blue Dealer sadly took his leave.

I wonder what he's doing now? 

I wonder if he still gets tongue-tied? 

I wonder if I should see a doctor?

A late 1960s Esso Blue badge.