1 Comment

  1. Anonymous
    March 13, 2006 @ 12:42 pm

    “Americans fight for their balls.
    Gas station Union 76’s signs has been a part of our picture of USA.
    Seen on place or in any US road movie. Large orange balls on high poles with the number 76 in flashing dark blue and white.

    They are now demounted one by one. Union 76 are since long a part of Conoco Phillips who thinks flat signs are enough. And that the numbers stand out better towards a red, not orange background.

    But Conoco Phillips ball picking meets resistance. On the Internet name collections circulate to defend these enlighted landmarks of the freeways. There is an entire web space, http://www.savethe76ball.local/ with the same purpose.

    Perhaps the reaction can be compared with the Swedes emotions when Sparbanken (One of the oldest banks in Sweden (Translator remark)) changed their famous oak logo. This old trustworthy logo was devalued into something slightly resembling a 5 cent coin.
    Even if the defenders of the 76 ball calls it a masterpiece of design, I believe the reaction is about something else.

    The Union 76 raised their balls in the sixties, long before any oil crisis, in a time when gas was cheap, especially in the US, and global warming was never heard off. Longing back to these times are shared by many, especially those who were young at the time. Future was never so bright – and going by car, as then.

    These memories aren’t limited to Americans. Why else should the demolition of a British Petroleum gas station at Ringv

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