View source for Wiki wiki dollar

{{Short description|1960s gasoline give-away promotion}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2025}}
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| title                    = Wiki wiki dollar
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| date                     = 1960s
| venue                    = 
| location                 = [[United States]]
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| type                     = [[Advertising campaign]]
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| organizers               = [[Chevron Corporation]]
| filmed_by                = 
| participants             = [[Irene Tsu]]
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'''Wiki wiki dollar''' was a giveaway promotion in the [[United States]] from the [[Chevron Corporation|Chevron]] [[gasoline]] company during the 1960s.  The advertising campaign featured a Wiki wiki girl, played by dancer [[Irene Tsu]], dressed in a [[grass skirt]] and performing a [[hula]] while standing on a [[gasoline pump]].<ref>{{cite video|publisher=[[YouTube]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdJhqgpQGpw|title=Wiki Wiki Girl Irene Tsu In 1960s Chevron Island TV Commercial|author=Tsu, Irene|date=July 18, 2022}}</ref>
[[File:Hawaii Five-O (1968–1980) Press Photo of Irene Tsu.jpg|thumb|right|Irene Tsu]]
The ''[[National Petroleum News]]'' noted it was one of the many promotional gimmicks attempted by gasoline companies in the 1960s and described it as part of "a late Sixties West Coast duel" between Chevron and [[Shell USA|Shell]]:

<blockquote>Chevron paid game players "Wiki Wiki Dollars" of $1 to $2,500 for matching segments of game pieces and offered more than $2,300,000 in prizes as part of a "hula" bingo game.<ref>Lawrence, Donna. "If gimmicks sell 'gas' and anything goes ...." ''National Petroleum News'', vol. 76, Feb. 1984, p. 100</ref></blockquote>

In the ''[[San Francisco Express Times]]'' in 1969, editor Marvin Garson denounced the campaign as part of an article on [[Standard Oil]], the corporate predecessor of Chevron.  He wrote:

<blockquote>Standard debauches the public taste with its garish $2,300,000 hula-hula Wiki Wiki Dollar giveaway. Standard strangles the beauty of the American road.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Goodman, Mitchell|title=The movement toward a new America: the beginnings of a long revolution; (a collage)--a what? ...|date=1971 |publisher=Pilgrim Press|isbn=0-394-70944-6|location=Philadelphia|pages=531|oclc=253767}}</ref></blockquote>

==Further reading==
* ''The Star Trek: The Episode Guide'' stated that Irene Tsu, "was the TV spokeswoman for "Chevron Island" Standard Oil."<ref>{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224101239/http://stvoy.epguides.info/?Actor=2171|url=http://stvoy.epguides.info/?Actor=2171|archivedate=February 24, 2007|date=2006|publisher=Star Trek: The Episode Guide|website=stvoy.epguides.info|title=Irene Tsu}}</ref>
* A 2005 ''Fragile Industries'' [[blog]] entry read, "I found the debate when I Googled Wiki Wiki Girl (no quotes, shoulda had 'em) to see if anyone remembers that phrase.  In the late '60's or early '70's, Chevron had an advertising campaign with the "Wiki Wiki Girl"—a gorgeous pseudo-Polynesian woman in a grass skirt hula-ing her butt off on top of a gas pump.  There may have been a contest involved.  I remember it only because 10 years later, I had my first full-time job working for the Wiki Wiki Girl herself, Irene Tsu, former dancer and now fashion designer.  I got the job because I knew her husband, photographer/director [[Iván Nagy (director)|Ivan Nagy]]. (Pronounced Yvonne Nazhh, not that it matters.)"<ref>{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060205200907/http://fragileindustries.typepad.com/fragile_industries/2005/05/index.html|archivedate=February 5, 2006|url=http://fragileindustries.typepad.com/fragile_industries/2005/05/wiki_wiki_girl_.html|title=Wiki Wiki Girl Girl Deux|date=May 7, 2005|publisher=Fragile Industries|website=fragileindustries.typepad.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZdAqiWbAew Irene Tsu Chevron Island Commercial 1970s] at [[YouTube]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiki wiki dollar}}
[[Category:Sales promotion]]
[[Category:Chevron Corporation]]
[[Category:Advertising]]


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