You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.

You can trust your car to the man who wears the star” is best known as a long-running U.S. advertising slogan used by Texaco, the petroleum company, to promote its service stations and mechanics. The “star” refers to Texaco’s distinctive five-pointed star logo, which was prominently displayed on station signage and attendants’ uniforms. The line became widely familiar through mid-20th-century print, radio, and television advertising, functioning as a reassurance about reliability and service quality at a time when motorists often depended on full-service stations for repairs, oil changes, and roadside help. Because it circulated as copywriting rather than a literary utterance, it is frequently attributed to “Anonymous.”

The slogan trades on visual authority: a uniform and emblem (“the star”) stand in for expertise, honesty, and accountability. It suggests that trust is not merely personal but institutional—earned by affiliation with a recognizable brand. In a broader cultural sense, it reflects the mid-century ideal of standardized service and the comfort of national networks, where a traveler could expect consistent treatment far from home. The line also illustrates how advertising compresses a promise into a memorable cadence: “trust your car” (high stakes) is resolved by “the man who wears the star” (a simple identifying marker), turning brand recognition into a proxy for character.