ugly brown

Pantone 448 C

Some years ago Australia wanted to discourage cigarette smoking some more. A company was hired to find the ugliest color to mandate use in packaging. Really?, they spent money to enrich a company. I remember hearing someone answering the question of favorite color. The person said,"brown". I immediately said, "No one's favorite color is brown". The result was supra. The government called it dark drab olive (or some variation). The olive growers were upset. Well, they had a point, olives are good; and to them they were gold. So the government decided to call it using the universal color code system. Pantone complained that there is no ugly color. Again really?, they advertise the color of the year. If one suggests a color is the favorite, or the best, or the "in" color; it follows there can be a worst, or "out" color.

The color is described as a mixture of dark brown, and green. I do not see the green. I would call the crappy color "diarrhea brown". That would also intensify the negative association. The color reminds me of the generic packaging of the early 1980s. There were cans, and packages without illustrations, and were white with only one color lettering. That generic color was often a similar brown, although i can't find a foto that is clearly brown.

Australia also put really ugly, gross, gruesome, and disgusting pictures on the packets. Australia's sale of cigarettes decreased. Other countries did the same thing.