Poor, unlovely opaque couch\u00e9. This lowly cousin of olive drab may be the only color that\u2019s designed to repulse consumers, rather than entice them. After extensive research and focus grouping, the UK government determined it is the ugliest color in the world\u2014and they\u2019re putting it on every cigarette pack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s used to deter you, to make you feel sick,\u201d says UK-based\u00a0Karen Haller<\/a>, who consults on color psychology for big brands. \u201cThis particular sludgy green is like decay. You would never get this reaction for lime green or grass green or forest green.\u201d<\/p>\n Opaque couch\u00e9, known as Pantone 448C among\u00a0certain\u00a0crowds, was one of many ugly ducklings presented to 1,000 smokers by global marketing agency GfK. \u201cDirty\u201d and \u201cdeath\u201d were words that came up\u00a0again and again<\/a>\u00a0with this one\u2014opaque couch\u00e9 was perfect.<\/p>\n The UK recently made\u00a0draconian changes<\/a>\u00a0to their tobacco marketing laws. All branding has been removed from cigarette packages, a tactic that proved\u00a0a strong smoking deterrent in\u00a0this 2013 study<\/a>. The new packs are 60% covered in health warnings. Health warnings and opaque couch\u00e9, that is.<\/p>\n Like standing up for an unpopular child, Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute,\u00a0defended<\/a>\u00a0Pantone 448C to the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>: \u201cAt the Pantone Color Institute, we consider all colours equally,\u201d she said. Eiseman then mentioned opaque couch\u00e9 might look nice on a sofa.<\/p>\n GfK\u2019s study was first conducted in Australia, several years back. When the Australian government stamped the ugly color on its own cigarette packaging, they initially called it \u201colive green\u201d\u2014until the olive industry\u00a0freaked out<\/a>. \u201cTo associate any food with cigarettes is a thoughtless thing to do, especially one that\u2019s had a very good reputation as being a healthy product,\u201d\u00a0Lisa Rowntree, chief executive of the Australian Olive Association, told\u00a0The Sunday Age<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cYou could have called it \u2018drab green\u2019 or \u2018khaki green\u2019 or, better still, not used green at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Color is the first thing our brains absorb on a product package, according to Haller, before shapes or words or a logo. \u201cThe job of a brand is to align the color\u2014which reaches you on a subconscious level\u2014with the rest of the messaging,\u201d she says. It may not be voluntary branding, but opaque couch\u00e9 certainly aligns with the new health warnings. (Research participants also associated the color with \u201cTar\u201d.)<\/p>\n If Haller had conducted the focus group testing, her questions would have been more nuanced and probing: \u201cBut how does this color make you\u00a0feel<\/em>?\u201d Even so, she suspects her results would have been the same as GfK\u2019s. Haller claims she loves all colors, and yet: \u201c[Opaque couch\u00e9] really makes you think of rotting.\u201d<\/p>\n Update<\/strong>: Hyperallergic\u00a0mounted a defense<\/a>\u00a0of opaque couch\u00e9 this morning, claiming it\u2019s very similar to the color of Mona Lisa\u2019s shawl.<\/p>\n Thumbnail image via\u00a0ash.org.uk<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Original Article via good.is<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Courtesy Eclat-Graa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Poor, unlovely opaque couch\u00e9. This lowly cousin of olive drab may be the only color that\u2019s designed to repulse consumers, rather than entice them. After extensive research and focus grouping, the UK government determined it is the ugliest color in the world\u2014and they\u2019re putting it on every cigarette pack. \u201cIt\u2019s used to deter you, to … <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,40],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","category-product-design","tag-product-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dayle.me\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}