What do the Dodgers and Giants have in common? An iconic ad — for Big Oil

Los Angeles Times

4 days ago

Long before Clayton Kershaw donned No. 22 and Fernando Valenzuela wore No. 34, another number told fans it was time for Dodger baseball: 76.
Union Oil Co., the 76 gasoline brand's former owner, helped finance Dodger Stadium's construction. The brand's current owner, Phillips 66, remains a major sponsor. Through six World Series titles, orange-and-blue 76 logos have been a constant presence at Chavez Ravine. They tower above the scoreboards and grace the outfield walls.
So when 76 recently posted on Instagram that it had begun sponsoring L.A.'s rivals in San Francisco — with an orange-and-blue logo on the center field clock at Oracle Park — some Dodgers fans weren't pleased.
'THE BETRAYAL,' one fan wrote on Instagram.
'bestiessss nooooo,' another lamented.
76 was unfazed, responding: 'Still a bestie, just spreading the love!'
Strange as the reactions may sound, it's not unheard of for long-lived ad campaigns to take on a life of their own, evolving from paid promotions to cultural touchstones. Outside Fenway Park in Boston, Red Sox fans have fought to preserve the massive Citgo sign, with its logo of a Venezuelan-owned oil company.
Nor is it shocking that Houston-based Phillips 66 would market itself through another baseball team. The 76 gasoline brand, after all, evokes the patriotism of 1776 — a clever marketing ploy. And what's more American than Major League Baseball?
Still, the timing of Phillips 66's decision to start sponsoring the Giants is intriguing.
Since last summer, nearly 30,000 people have signed a petition urging Dodgers ownership to cut ties with the oil company. California is currently suing Phillips 66 and other oil and gas companies for climate damages, accusing them of a 'decades-long campaign of deception' to hide the truth about the climate crisis.
The Sierra Club Angeles Chapter held its third protest at Dodger Stadium before a game against the Athletics on May 15. Activists cloaked in sackcloth marched outside the parking lots. One played a bagpipe.
'It was a bit hard for the fans to comprehend,' organizer Lisa Kaas Boyle acknowledged.
Still, she believes the cause is righteous.
A former environmental crimes prosecutor and a co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, Kaas Boyle lost her home in the Palisades fire. She's also a Dodgers fan, having caught the bug from her husband, whose 89-year-old mom grew up cheering for the team in Brooklyn. She has a special place in her heart for Kiké Hernández.
So when the Dodgers joined other sports teams in pledging $8 million to wildfire relief, she felt the organization was 'speaking out of two sides of its mouth.' She pointed to a study concluding that the weather conditions that helped drive the Palisades and Eaton fires were 35% more likely due to climate change.
'If you really care about us fire victims, you wouldn't be promoting one of the major causes of the disaster,' Kaas Boyle said. 'If you really care, you wouldn't be boosting their image, greenwashing it through baseball.'
At least one member of the Dodgers ownership group cares about presenting a climate-friendly image.
Tennis star Billie Jean King posted on Facebook, Instagram and X in the fall promoting a climate summit being held next week at the University of Oxford, co-hosted by an arm of the United Nations. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called on all countries to ban fossil fuel advertising.
So, what does King think of the 76 ads at Dodger Stadium?
Hard to say. Her publicist didn't respond to my request for comment.
The Dodgers also declined to respond. Same goes for the Giants and Phillips 66.
So why is the oil company 'spreading the love' to the Bay Area?
Again, hard to know for sure. But Duncan Meisel has a theory. He runs the advocacy group Clean Creatives, which pressures ad agencies to stop working with fossil fuel clients. And he suspects that lawmakers and regulators based in Sacramento are less likely to attend a baseball game in L.A. than in nearby San Francisco.
'If you're 76, and you're worried about decision-makers in California, that's where you'd want to be,' he said.
Indeed, Phillips 66 may have reasons to be worried.
The company plans to close its Los Angeles County oil refinery this year — a troubling sign of the economic times for Big Oil as California shifts toward electric cars. Lawmakers are also weighing a 'polluters pay' bill that would require fossil fuel companies to help pay for damages from more intense heat waves, wildfires and storms.
Phillips 66, meanwhile, was arraigned this month on charges that it violated the U.S. Clean Water Act by dumping oil and grease from its L.A. County refinery into the local sewer system. (It pleaded not guilty.) That followed a win for climate activists in March, when state Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) wrote to Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter, urging him to dump Phillips 66.
Hence, perhaps, the newfound relationship with the Giants.
'That's why you advertise,' Meisel said. 'If you're a company like Phillips 66 that's under threat from political and cultural pressures in California, it's hard to get a better deal than sponsoring a local sports team.'
It's not just California turning up the heat on Phillips 66. Executives have been battling a pressure campaign from Elliott Investment Management, which won two seats on the company's board last week.
As Elliott ramped up the pressure on Phillips 66 earlier this year, executives announced an expanded sponsorship deal with their hometown ball club — another Dodgers nemesis, as it happens, the cheating Houston Astros.
Phillips 66 now sponsors the home run train atop the high left-field wall at Houston's Daikin Park (formerly Minute Maid Park). The train is filled with 25 oversized baseballs, each representing a special moment in Astros history — yes, including the World Series title they stole from the Dodgers.
As Phillips 66 brand manager John Field said in an April news release: 'Sponsorships like these are more than just fun — they're a strategic investment.'
Fun and strategic, sure, if you're mainly invested in oil industry profits. If you care about watching baseball games in safe temperatures, without choking on wildfire smoke, you might reach a different conclusion.
One thing's for sure: Fossil fuel companies will keep pumping money into baseball so long as teams let them. The Astros, Texas Rangers and Cleveland Guardians all wear jersey patches sponsored by oil and gas companies.
In California, meanwhile, Phillips 66 will keep reminding Dodgers fans how much they love looking at 76 logos — a playbook so successful it once inspired a campaign to save the rotating 76 balls above gas stations.
'This is a heavy play on Americana,' Roberta J. Newman said.
A Yankees fan and professor in New York University's Liberal Studies program, Newman wrote the fascinating book, 'Here's the Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising.' There may be nobody with a better understanding of the cultural and political power of baseball-linked advertising.
When a brand like 76 associates itself with the Dodgers — through special ticket deals, joint promotions with the team charity and TV commercials starring Vin Scully — it's engaged in 'meaning transfer,' Newman said.
'Your positive associations of the Dodgers will become positive associations with 76,' she said.
Most fans won't drive away from Dodger Stadium and immediately choose 76 over a rival gasoline station. But in the long run, they'll have good vibes when they see the orange-and-blue logo. It'll feel familiar, friendly.
If that sounds nuts — well, you might want to tell business executives they blew $1 trillion on ads last year.
'People might think, 'Oil is terrible. But 76 is the Dodgers,'' Newman said.
Now it's the Giants, too — not that Newman thinks the dual loyalty will hurt the company. As one Instagram user, a Giants fan, wrote: 'Hey Dodger fans, it's OK! ... 76 is a California icon and tradition from North to South!'
Fair enough. Wildfires are getting bigger and more destructive up there too.
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