Saving the Spirit of 76
Unocal 76 gas station, southwest corner of Vermont and Fountain Avenues, 7/15/2005
Union/Unocal 76 gas stations are a familiar sight on the streets of Los Angeles. They are distinguished by ball-shaped orange-and-blue "76" signs, some of which rotate. These signs, part of the urban vernacular of our automobile-oriented metropolis, are simply iconic. It seems that we've taken them for granted; when I took the photo above last summer, I had no idea that these signs would soon be threatened.
Last month I observed that the ball-shaped "76" sign at a station in Burbank had been replaced with a more typical pricing sign featuring a far less prominent red-and-blue "76" flattened disk. I wasn't happy about it. I soon found out that the change hadn't been an isolated incident but part of a larger "rebranding" campaign undertaken by ConocoPhillips, a corporation based in Houston with no love for history.
Mike at Franklin Avenue, who shares my sign and branding fetish, took note of the color scheme change last August, then chronicled the removal of the signs in October. As word spread across the blogosphere, Kim at 1947project launched an online petition to convince ConocoPhillips to stop its "rebranding" and systematic removal of the ball-shaped 76 signs. I encourage all Angelenos to sign the petition and to boycott the corporation's gas stations until it publicly renounces its flagrant disregard towards our city's history and culture.
posted by Mitch Glaser @ 1:59 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Thank you so much for spreading the word, Mitch! The ball's dominion actually spreads beyond L.A.--I know they are in Vegas and Seattle, though they are fast disappearing.
Good post. I was horrified several weeks ago when I realized what was happening. The orange balls are turning into red-ish disks.
I pledge my support to your cause. Commercial iconography is too easily disposed the days...except for the ugly stuff, of course.
Oh the nostalgia! Back in high school, it used to be trendy to have one of those styrofoam orange 76-balls on the antenna of your car! And having one of these coveted styrofoam balls was never enough...the "cool" thing to do was steal as many as you possibly could off of other people's antennas. The more "76-balls" you hoarded, the cooler you were! We'd attach them to our backpacks, hang them from our rear-view mirrors, and load our lockers up with them.
Karma finally caught up with me when my own 76-ball was stolen off of my car while at church. I stopped stealing them from other people immediately thereafter and settled for the standard free-ball-with-fill-up and nothing more.
Such fond memories! I completely support your cause!
~Carrie =)
Post a Comment
<< Home