Word: granatelli
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Rotund Andy Granatelli, chairman of STP Corp., has become one of television's most familiar-indeed, unavoidable-commercial pitchmen, touting his much criticized engine-oil additive as the "racer's edge." A little more than a week ago, Granatelli, 50, got the razor's edge when his board of directors abruptly cut him loose and replaced him with John J. Hooker Jr., entrepreneur and sometime politician. Hooker was hand-picked by Derald H. Ruttenberg, chairman of the widely diversified Studebaker-Worthington Inc., which owns a controlling interest in STP. The keenly publicity-conscious Granatelli was almost...
Race-Car Owner Andy Granatelli thought he had it made. After 23 years of disappointing finishes in the Indianapolis 500, Granatelli finally saw one of his entries win the big event two years ago. And besides coming in first at the Brickyard, Andy was ahead in an even more important competition. The STP Corp., of which he is president and a major stockholder, was outpacing all its engine-additive competitors on the way to a $65 million sales year...
This year Granatelli's corporate glory has vanished in a cloud of blue exhaust smoke. An article in last July's Consumer Reports criticized STP Oil Treatment, warned that new-car warranties might not cover damage from an overdose of the additive and sent STP stock tumbling from its high of 58. In one frenzied trading day last week, the stock fell from 331 to 22. It finished the week at 181. Reason: Granatelli announced that third-quarter earnings had fallen 69% below last year's level...
...Granatelli insists that STP is a valuable lubricant, but the elixir mixer guards his formula as if it were vital to the national security. The major ingredient is apparently polyisobutylene, a long-molecule petrochemical that sells for about a dollar a gallon, appreciably less than STP. In fact, STP spends more on advertising the oil treatment than it does on producing it. Such high-compression hustling may be the main reason for STP's history of success. Even now, auto-suggestive motorists-bombarded by radio and TV commercials ("the Racer's Edge") that often feature Granatelli...
...five hours) are the longest, is most popular. Sports and space -sure winners in Japan-dominate the "Images of America" theme. By far the biggest attraction of the pavilion-and the fair-is a moon rock brought back by Apollo astronauts. The crowds are also taken with an Andy Granatelli turbocar and, in baseball-crazy Japan, by Babe Ruth's old Yankee uniform and locker. The space display is understated and effective. Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 Mercury spacecraft, Gemini 12 and the command module of Apollo 8 are suspended just above visitors' heads; a lunar landing...