Saturday 11 June 2016

unpalatable or hue and cry

What has been determined to be the world’s most loathsome and revolting colour, called Opaque Couchรฉ, is to be generic hue going forward for all plain-packaged cigarettes in Australia and the UK, which also won’t be allowing identifiable logos or signature typefaces.
Reverse-marketers are hoping the aversion to the colour, which looks like the filth of spent soil, will also deter people from smoking. Pantone, the tincture company who produced Opaque Couchรฉ and is known for nominating a colour of the year to reflect or determine the interior decorating zeitgeist of the moment, is not happy about having any of its carefully cultivated spectrum called ugly. For me it’s hard to image that any choice in palate won’t eventually become a branded look itself, even if it’s for the Victory cigarettes and gin of the addicted proles of Airship One—like the particular reds and browns that are associated fast-food and reportedly hunger. What do you think? There have been other proposed candidates for packaging that might prove a bigger deterrent.