Not really

Back in the mid 90’s I rode a 1982 Yamaha Virago. It’s one of those motorcycles that look like a Harley but doesn’t have a Harley price tag. At the time I primarily used Diamond Shamrock gasoline. I never had a problem with it until I starting using it in my bike.

Every time I filled up at Diamond Shamrock, there was always a pinging sound and the occasional hiccup in horsepower. I realized that my bike was in bad enough shape to give indication that the gasoline was bad too. And this was only with Diamond Shamrock and no other brand of gasoline. So ever since then I’ve avoided using Diamond Shamrock like the plague. I’ve sworn them off.

And now they’ve made a final step to ensure that I never use them again. Ever.

Anyone can see this billboard heading west on 183 approaching the Mopac exit. I haven’t seen any of the Diamond Shamrock locations switching over yet, but it doesn’t matter because they will eventually. They say they plan on retiring the 30-year old Diamond Shamrock brand and using the Valero brand at 2,900 retail locations (which I assume is all of them).

It’s not prettier. It’s not even good. There’s nothing clever to it, not even a trace amount of ambiguity or metaphorical character to give it life. At least the Diamond Shamrock logo had a semblance of that. I think it’s the yellow squiggly line that’s throwing me off. I could live with the white “V” in the green circle (it would show structure and balance indicating reliability for the company) but I think it’d have to be tweaked for better symmetrical balance (and they would have to lose the gradient on the green circle). Details.