#28: Good Traction
It was a smooth relationship between Arnold Palmer and Pennzoil, which yielded a beloved series of ads featuring the golfer and the Toro tractor on which he and his father spent so much time.
Thanks to the commercials, the tractor became a celebrity in its own right, with fans stopping by Latrobe Country Club to pose for pictures with it. Palmer's younger brother, Jerry, decided the Toro needed cleaning for its new TV role—which didn’t please the advertising agency behind the commercials. As adman Dick Westman said in 1983, "Jerry thought he was doing us a favor by really sprucing it up. When we saw it, it really blew our minds because we were so pleased with it in its old condition." The solution? Westman said "dirt and grass stains" were added to the tractor in an attempt to recover some of its authenticity.
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