Rust-eze is the fictional company that sponsors Lightning McQueen at the start of Pixar’s Cars.
Rust-eze sells a rusty-car ointment and is represented by brothers Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze. McQueen initially treats the sponsorship as an embarrassing stepping stone because he wants the prestigious Dinoco sponsorship. His attitude changes as his experiences in Radiator Springs teach him to value friendship and community more than commercial status.
The Rust-eze brand is visually associated with orange-red packaging and a distinctive logo. Its unusual product creates a joke based on the idea that rusty vehicles need a treatment to improve their appearance. McQueen’s red paint and racing number 95 make him a memorable advertising vehicle for the company.
Rust-eze remains important in later films and eventually becomes connected to McQueen’s racing team. Dinoco, by contrast, is the larger championship sponsor that McQueen hopes to join. The two names are therefore easy to confuse, but they represent different companies in the Cars story.