The Day The Balls Dropped

When the big orange balls started dropping, it was a sad day for America. In 2005, new corporate owners of Union 76, 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 the 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. IMHO, this is a classic case of design by committee getting everything wrong.