L.A. Ad Town, one in a series

A few screen grabs from one of the latest Hyundai commercials. Above, driving through downtown Los Angeles (at the Broadway intersection).



A giant genie hangs out at the iconic Jack Colker's 76 gas station in Beverly Hills (designed by William Pereira).



On one of the downtown bridges over the Los Angeles River.

76 Learns to Love Its Balls

Five years after the 1947project's Kim and Nathan launched their Save the 76 Ball campaign (and four years after their efforts paid off), 76 is now using the ball as the centerpiece of their new marketing campaign.

Quite a change from a few years ago, when ConocoPhillips announced that it was eliminating all of the 76 "meatball" signs around the country. After the outcry, 76 agreed to keep some of the remaining signs up (and just change the color scheme). Apparently they're glad they did.

The 76-O-Lantern Lives! It Lives!

Earlier this month, we asked if any of you had spotted a Jack-O-Lantern face on one of the remaining 76 balls around the city. Sadly, none have been spotted here.

But 76 ball savior Kim Cooper just emailed me this link, which featured the pic (seen above) of a Berkeley 76 station that still carries on the tradition! The 76-O-Lantern lives!

Any 76-O-Lantern Sightings?

(Flickr pic by In2Jazz.)

It was a Halloween tradition, at least until a few years ago: Union 76 gas stations would cover their orange ball signs with a jack-o-lantern sheath through the month of October.

Sadly, around the time Unocal sold off the chain (76 is a part of the ConocoPhillips), the stations stopped donning the pumpkin look. Of course, that's partly because ConocoPhillips started getting rid of the orange balls and replacing them with generic signs. (To gloat, Franklin Avenue was the first place anywhere to write about the switch.)

As you know, thanks to the Save the 76 Ball crew, ConocoPhillips has agreed to keep many balls in several locations.

But under the compromise, the remaining balls will now be red -- and although a handful of orange balls remain, it's been a few years since I last saw a Jack-O-76 station.

I emailed Save the 76 Ball's Kim Cooper to see if she's seen one -- and she responded, "Nope, not a one, dang it!"

How about any of you? Or is this a Halloween tradition that has disappeared for good?

The New Red-And-Blue 76 Balls Have Arrived

Before...


...and after.

Earlier this year the Save the 76 Ball campaign successfully preserved several of the iconic signs and got 76 owner ConocoPhillips to finally recognize their place in pop culture history.

One of the concessions made by ConocoPhillips: They'll continue to take down the classic orange-and-blue 76 balls. But several gas stations will now erect new red-and-blue 76 balls (the company's new color scheme). Above, reader Matthew Meltzer caught (via his camera phone) an orange 76 ball coming down and being replaced by a new red 76 ball at the corner of Riverside and Woodman in Sherman Oaks.

Corrected at 1:35 p.m.

Ball's In Their Court

76 gas station at the corner of Hyperion and Griffith Park Blvd. in Silver Lake, 10/13/05

Congrats to Nathan and Kim at the Save the 76 Ball blog -- their efforts have paid off!

76 owner ConocoPhillips -- which had been quietly destroying the iconic 76 meatball signage (like the one being taken down above) -- has agreed to donate some of the signs to select museums, and is ordering 100 new ones in the gas station's new red color! (Sadly, that means the orange-and-blue color scheme of the old Unocal 76 is still toast.)

The 76 Ballers note in a press release:

This is a stunning victory for citizen activism, historic preservation and good design.

When told that his 8-foot wide 76 Ball might be added to the Smithsonian's collection, a delighted Ray Pedersen, who designed and fabricated the first 76 Ball for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, quipped "As a pilot, I don't see why I can't have my 76 Ball alongside the Spirit of St. Louis. It's an icon that people lived with for a long time, and now it's part of their Psyche. If Archie Bunker's chair is there, get my Ball in there!"

The Save the 76 Ball campaign applauds ConocoPhillips for throwing its corporate muscle behind the preservation of the 76 Ball. Save the 76 Ball asks that in addition to the museum donations (which we hope will include all costs of crating and shipping for these large signs), they agree to maintain a select few historically and architecturally significant orange 76 Balls at their original locations. Ideal examples include William Pereira's swooping modernist 76 station in Beverly Hills, one of the spheres along Highway One in Malibu, and the station in Marysville, WA where 76 Ball designer Ray Pedersen buys his gas.