76 (gas station)

76
Founder Lyman Stewart[1]
Number of locations
 1,800[1]
Products Gasoline
Parent Phillips 66 Company
Website 76.com
Union 76 ball sign
The newer sign design
A landmark station in Beverly Hills. This station has since received a new red orange 76 Ball and the orange squares on the sides of the roof have since been painted red.[2]
A 76 ball is visible (left) at Daytona International Speedway in the late 1990s.

76 (formerly Union 76) is a chain of gas stations located within the United States. The 76 brand is owned by Phillips 66 Company.[1] Union Oil Company of California, dba Unocal, the original owner and creator of the Union 76 brand merged with Chevron Corporation in 2005.

In 1997, Unocal sold its western United States refining and marketing operations and the rights to the Union 76 brand for use in refining and marketing operations to Tosco Corporation. Tosco has since been purchased by Phillips Petroleum, which merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips. As of May 1, 2012, the "76" brand is owned by the Phillips 66 Company. Unocal continued to own the "76" trademark for use in its operations, with the exception of the divested Refining and Marketing business. On August 10, 2005, Unocal Corporation and Union Oil Company of California were acquired and merged into a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation.

76, Conoco, and Phillips 66 market their brand of gasoline under the brand name PROclean. The previous brand name for their gasoline was Propower. 76 gasoline stopped being marketed under the Propower name after the termination of the commercial relationship between NASCAR and 76 after the end of the 2003 season when the firm discontinued all motorsport fuels. As of October 2004, PROclean brand fuel was included onto the list of fuels recognized as "Top Tier".[3]

In the 1970s and 1980s, the company used the slogan "Go With the Spirit...the Spirit of '76." This has been shortened to "Get the Spirit".

The Orange Ball

Union Oil (for many years based in El Segundo, California, near Los Angeles) first introduced "76" gasoline in 1932. The name referred to the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence, and was also the octane rating of the gasoline in 1932.[4]

76 signs are orange balls with "76" written in blue on them. Many stations had the 76 ball rotate when the signs were lit up. The first such sign was designed in 1962 by advertising creative director Ray Pedersen for the Seattle World's Fair.

In 2005, new corporate owners ConocoPhillips began a rebranding campaign to unify the design elements of each of the merged brands (76, Phillips, and Conoco). As a part of this re-branding, there was an initial decision to pull down all the Orange Ball signs and replace them with monument-style signs in the red orange and blue color scheme. In response to overwhelming negative publicity generated by a grassroots Save The 76 Ball campaign, ConocoPhillips backtracked on this decision in January 2007, agreeing to donate several of the classic orange 76 balls to museums and to erect approximately 100 balls in the new red orange and blue color scheme.

Urge Overkill used the sign's likeness for the cover of their 1990 album Americruiser, as well as naming a track for it.

The 76 ball is a very popular logo in the "Cult Style" of European car tuning (especially on VW Golf Mk 1 GTIs due to the debut year of 1976), and is also used on many clothing items in Japan as of 2005.

The 76 Ball also made a brief appearance in the 1991 film Point Break during the final airport escape scene, in 1997's The Lost World: Jurassic Park during the T-rex chase in San Diego and close to the dam in 2014's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It also made an appearance in Sid and Marty Krofft's Land of the Lost movie.

Until the end of 2003, 76 balls were located at the Daytona International Speedway. They were used as scoring points, had portholes, and were capable of holding a few people inside. One of these "balls" was given to the owner of Brumos Motor Cars in Jacksonville, FL, and now sits atop a building on the premises after ConocoPhillips terminated its NASCAR sponsorship. Similar balls had been placed near pit entrances at most NASCAR circuits until the sponsorship ended.

The 76 ball is also a landmark at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the only gas station on the premises of a major league ballpark is visible from the park beyond the outfield stands. Union Oil was a longtime sponsor of the Dodgers baseball team beginning with their relocation to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958, and the sponsorship by the 76 brand continues to this day.

Union 76 invented the antenna topper concept. Beginning in 1967, Union 76 distributed tens of millions of orange 76 antenna balls made out of styrofoam and other materials. These were extremely popular, primarily in the Greater Los Angeles area, where they are still frequently seen. In the winter of 1968, they also proved to be safety aids in northwestern US cities such as Spokane, Washington when wind and snow created drifts that made it almost impossible to locate cars without whip antennas and the ubiquitous orange 76 ball on them. [5]

In recent years, 76 has appeared in certain areas in the Eastern United States. Since 2013, they have returned to the orange ball imagery as part of the "Experience 76" program.[6]

76 in Hawaii

The 76 brand, then owned by Union Oil Company of California, began operating in Hawaii in the early 20th century. Starting with no local refineries, Union Oil shipped gasoline to the islands, but later built a terminal in Iwilei for gasoline storage.

In 1997, Tosco purchased Union Oil's assets in Hawaii including its Kawaihae and Honolulu terminals and trucking operations. In 2001, Phillips purchased all of these assets from Tosco. Soon after, Phillips merged to form what is now ConocoPhillips. Mid Pac Petroleum purchased ConocoPhillips' Hawaii assets in 2004.

In September 2007, Koko'oha Investments, Inc. purchased Mid Pac Petroleum. And on January 1, 2011, Koko'oha Investments merged with Grace Pacific Corporation, the leading Hawaii roadway-paving contractor.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 http://www.76.com/AboutUs/
  2. ↑ Another Take on Los Angeles - Meet George Jetson
  3. ↑ Top Tier
  4. ↑ Sign of the 76, Los Angeles: Union Oil, 1976, p.203.
  5. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/KGWTV8/posts/321105171267784
  6. ↑ http://www.cstoredecisions.com/2014/09/29/phillips-66-continues-drive-retail-innovation/
  7. ↑ "History of 76 in Hawaii". Mid Pac Petroleum Company Website.

External links

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