[Americana] Saving Ray's Balls

We've all experienced it: a late night when you've run out of gas or are in desperate need of a bag of Funyons. Just when you've given up, out of the unforgiving void emerges a beacon of hope in the form of a floating orange and navy orb. Such is the magic of the 76 ball, the electric signage of what were once known as Union 76 gas stations, a glowing (literally) example of effective branding for nearly half a century. That is, until ConocoPhilips acquired California Unocal in 2002 and instituted a plan to replace the balls beginning in 2005, enacting a "destroy all balls" policy for the felled orange giants.

Enter Kim Cooper. The Los Angeles-based cultural historian's quest to save the eight-foot, 400-pound balls took shape when her local 76 station's ball disappeared, only to be replaced by a flattened disc with a red background instead of the familiar orange. "I didn't know at first exactly why I was so upset when they got rid of the ball in my neighborhood," Cooper says, but as the campaign grew, she found that the 76 ball held a special place in the collective memory of West Coast natives. "Several families have told me that it was their child's first word; that every time they drove past a 76 station their child would say 'ball' and it became this special family memory."

Cooper began the fight to save this icon of the American West from her living room with the site Savethe76ball.com, eventually bringing on her partner from the 1947 Project historical crime blog, Nathan Maransk. Together, the two amassed almost 3,000 signatures in an online petition that demanded ConocoPhillips save some of the balls to be put on display in museums. As a result of their efforts and the extensive media coverage thereof, the Texas-based oil conglomerate recently announced that it will donate several of the balls to museums across the country.

Although thrilled with their success, Cooper says the battle for the fate of the balls is not yet over. The Save the 76 Ball Project is also asking that a few select, historically significant balls be preserved at their original locations, that ConocoPhillips foot the bill for transporting the unwieldy orbs, and that a ball be given to the original designer, Ray Pederson, who built and hand-painted the first ball himself for the Seattle World's Fair of 1962.

-Ayse Arf, from LA CityBeat

The day before yesterday, while idly discussing the ST76B project, my flapjaw compatriot asked, what has ConocoPhillips said?  And I repeated, nearly verbatim, Lara Campbell’s statement (she of CP Communications and Public Affairs, whose words we posted here 11 March).  To which my comrade countered, that if I hadn’t made the effort to open a dialogue with them, then well, I was really lame.  My friend may be short on eloquence, but long on wisdom.  Why hadn’t I called them?

So yesterday morning I picked up the phone and gave them a ring.  I was routed to the voice mail of a very pleasant-sounding employee named Sylvia Hansen in “External Communications.”  I left a short and equally pleasant message about us, and them, and about opening a dialogue, and how we could work toward a win-win situation, and so forth, and that I very much looked forward to hearing from her at her earliest possible convenience.

And now we wait.

What we have to discuss with ConocoPhillips isn’t terribly complicated.  We are asking of CP that a) we work with them and the LA Conservancy to select some historically significant 76 stations that will retain their balls, and b) that the now-removed balls be offered to collectors for purchase, instead of destroying them, and that CP gift 76 balls to American signage museums so that future generations may enjoy them.

We wish ConocoPhillips no vicissitudes, but the campaign, including its boycott, is gaining great momentum and amazing supporters.  It would seem a no-brainer that they would wish to avoid bad press, especially in these times when Big Oil ranks right alongside Satan and al-Quaida in popularity.  But in the interest of full disclosure I want it known that I’m not of that ilk, disingenuously decrying high gas prices while still paying for the stuff.  In fact, I own royalty interest in CP subsidiary Burlington, so far be it from me to bite the hand that feeds (despite my issues with their manner of foreign investment, but that’s another topic altogether).

So call me, ConocoPhillips.  Let’s confab.  You’re talking to one of your own.  

I foresee great things for both of our camps, if we walk hand in hand toward this rotating, rising sun together.

Thanks to the good folks at Los Angeles Magazine (April issue, not yet online) for the swell piece on the campaign to Save the 76 Ball.

We are tickled to see our Ray's balls next to the Bettie Page feature, and further tickled by the ConocoPhillips spokesperson's amusing claims that they had heard nothing about any campaign to Save the 76 Ball--really? so the calls from the BBC, LA Business Journal, Brandweek, KTLA, KABC and Daily Telegraph didn't go through?--and that anyway, they had heard many more complements than complaints about the new signs.

Nice work, PR flack! That's what the boss men want to hear!

...now the stockholders, on the other hand, might be interested in knowing that as of today, 1493 people have signed the petition supporting the retention of the balls, most pledging not to purchase gas from your stations unless an orange sphere flies high above!

Take special note of signatory Charles Vaughan (#1440), who proclaims "$300 in personal gasoline expense a month and well over $1000 for my company is now being spent at Exxon." Ouch! That's a pretty expensive side effect from a failed re-branding attempt!

So c'mon, let's Save Ray's Balls! It's not too late!

Original 8mm footage, courtesy of Alan Eastlund, of Ray Pedersen's design for the Union Oil Skyride exhibit at the Seattle Fair, which inspired the endangered 76 Ball design.