COP3 - BERNIE CAMPAIGN // PANTONE 448 C // WORLDS WORT COLOUR

In an effort to portray Hillary Clinton as boring, disgusting, and vile, I stumbled across what is called the world's worst colour or what it's officially known as 'Pantone 448 C'. It was first displayed on cigarette & tobacco packaging in Australia and now other Governments in the UK, France and Ireland have all said they plan to follow Australia's example to use the colour as part of measures to 'standardise' tobacco packaging.

The colour was tested on around 1,000 regular smokers which revealed that Pantone 448 C had the lowest overall appeal. Anti-smoking campaign group Ash expresses: 'Brand imagery is much more important to younger age groups and they respond more effectively to it than older groups. 'Moving to standardised packaging will, therefore, reduce brand appeal and reduce smoking initiation.' Faber Birren, an academic who, for the majority of his professional career studied the impact of colour on human behaviour recommended that cool colours created a soothing and calming effect while warm colour enhanced creativity. He also remarked that colours such as browns and greys were the most likely colour that left people with the feeling of boredom and disgust. The attributes of brown and grey that Birren stated are emotional triggers that I want to be implemented within Hillary's portrayal.

Angela Wright, a colour consultant and author of the Beginner Guide to Colour Psychology, told CNN: 'It makes perfect sense that smoking packets would use a vile green that looks like bodily fluids and makes people feel slightly nauseated.'  However, Dr Carolyn Mair, from the London College of Fashion, said she actually quite liked the colour as it reminded her of 'nature'. In this case, you can tell that colours and their emotional connection are subjective, as long as people have the freedom of thought and experiences growing up, colour can trigger different emotions or memories for different people.

As I expressed in my essay, rhetoric cannot be applied to everything, so this is why it would be beneficial to apply the colour with another emotional trigger such as the image of Hillary supporting a segregationist. But if the colour was applied onto of a landscape of nature then  Dr Carolyn Mair would mostly be attracted visually and emotionally by it.