You want to know what the world’s ugliest colour is? Say hello to opaque couché, which will soon be seen on a cigarette pack near you – that’s if our government takes any art direction advice from their UK counterparts.

Cousin to olive drab, opaque couché is the colour that has been chosen to repulse customers, rather than entice them, after much research and focus grouping in the UK.

Declared the ugliest colour in the world, the UK is putting it on every cigarette pack. Colour psychology consultant Karen Haller gives her input:

It’s used to deter you, to make you feel sick. This particular sludgy green is like decay. You would never get this reaction for lime green or grass green or forest green.

To certain crowds, the colour is known as Pantone 448C. It was one of more than 1 000 colours presented in a focus group of smokers. “Dirty” and “death” were words that came up again and again when the people saw the colour, so researchers knew it was the one.

What do you think?

Baby poo, right?

Well, there was some defense laid down for the colour. The director of Pantone Color Institute defended the colour by declaring:

At the Pantone Color Institute, we consider all colours equally.

Opaque couché might look nice on a sofa.

There is no such thing as the ugliest color nor is there such a thing as the most beautiful color

With that said, we don’t consider PANTONE 448 to be the ‘fugliest color in the world,’ as our color word association studies show PANTONE 448 is a color associated with deep, rich earth tones.

The colour was first called Olive Green, but people freaked up. Lisa Rowntree, chief executive of the Australian Olive Association, had this to say:

To associate any food with cigarettes is a thoughtless thing to do, especially one that’s had a very good reputation as being a healthy product. You could have called it ‘drab green’ or ‘khaki green’ or, better still, not used green at all.

Hyperallergic also mounted an attack, using the Mona Lisa as their main defense.

A brief tour through art history yields countless examples of famous artworks that make heavy use of opaque couché and its close relatives. For starters, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” wears a dress and shawl in a shade quite similar to Pantone 448C.

All that over a colour? I guess it’s important to have someone fighting the good fight.

[source: good&hyperallergic]