You’ll Probably Think I’m a Bit Obsessed with This…

 

…and you’d be right. In the last podcast, we were discussing the Super Bowl and the ads, and I noted that there was a similar hue to many of the ads, and it’s driving me nuts. Once you see it, it’s everywhere. Peter and Rob were amused by my concern, and I suppose there’s really nothing to it.

It’s just odd. It’s just damned odd. You will probably think I’m daft. But. 

This is a frame from a Verizon commercial. See the bins in the back? The chair? That’s the sort of hue we’re describing. 

Now we pull out to the house. Why are two windows sporting this color? And the door? And the reflections in the garage glass? 

It’s nothing you notice, unless maybe the commercial next is for the Air Jordan movie coming up. 

Or the Batman movie. 

Or a Benz commercial. This is supposed to take place in the pre-dawn hour. Yes, that’s just what light looks like at that time. 

The Creed movie:

Cloudstrike did an ad about a Trojan horse, and painted individual boards in the hallowed hue, as well as the logo on the horse.

Doritos starts mild, with just some clothing items . . . 

But soaks the whole set in the hue soon enough. 

Dragons and Dungeons movie:

Dr. Pepper commercial:

Farmer’s Dog, blanket, and rug:

Geico loved it a lot for this ad. Living room  . . . 

Kitchen. Glass in the cupboards – you see that a lot in realtor photos, no? No? And some light versions in the clothing . . . 

Back to the living room . . . 

…and upstairs, where the hue is on the lamp, the bathrobe, and leaking from the left. 

Will Farrell did a commercial about something.

Guardians of the Galaxy are here to save us from something, but not the hallowed hue:

Intuit will do your taxes, but make sure your mug conforms:

Steve Martin is acting! I don’t remember what the ad’s for . . . 

…but in the next shot, he has a piece of paper that’s very useful in normal life, you see that all the time. Nice that it matches the ceiling! And the computer monitor. And the little square back on the right. 

NFL commercial runs us through a mall, which of course looks like a normal place:

A trailer for the movie “Oppenheimer” looks ultra-realistic:

Priceline gives us a cheery version of the hue. Did they overdo it? Heck no! We love that color!

A company that handles your résumé starts out in an airport, which again has totally normal sunlight streaming in the window… 

Same company, where the dentist’s chair naturally matches the poster… 

Here’s Mom in a store, handing out her son’s résumé.

Sam Adams: “We want  a color that really makes you think ‘Beer!'”

Sam Adams again. I’m parched just looking at it. 

When you think Snickers, of course, this is the color that snaps instantly to mind:

Tubi is a new streaming service. It starts with this scene… 

…and then moves behind the young lady. Completely normal nighttime light. 

Tum-tum-tum-tum: Again, totally normal airport. 

Weathertech makes floor mats. We start here… 

…move to the home office, where totally natural sunlight floods the room…

…then we head to the factory floor. 

Amazon had a heart-tugging commercial about a dog, and it showed the living room.

Everyone’s ordering online at night – a warm, cozy family moment, no? 

At least there’s some sunlight here, even though the chair and lamp are — well, you know. 

Dad’s cooking! He puts on the proper-color shirt and makes sure he’s got the proper-color pot:

Later, he drives home in the rain with a dog kennel, which I’m sure can be found in this color from a variety of sellers, and the light outside is totally normal

Oreos — well, they don’t care. Here it is. Make of it what you will.

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Whatever happened to harvest gold and olive green?

    • #1
  2. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    The blue filter for the video is everywhere right now; it’s the latest fad.  Like how after The Matrix came out, every martial artist could float in mid-air.  As for the rest, I guess teal is the new black.

    • #2
  3. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    James Lileks: It’s just odd. It’s just damned odd. 

    It is, very.  I’ve never noticed it.

    You will probably think I’m daft. But. 

    No, I don’t. It really is odd.

    • #3
  4. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Hm.  Any chance the ads weren’t actually made that way, but the network did some color-shifting for airing?  Because they wanted the ads to look consistent?  Reminiscent of how the film processors kept color-correcting Spock’s greenish hue and the Orion slave girl in early Star Trek, because they assumed the camera operators or someone had messed up.

    • #4
  5. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Video editors have always been able to alter hues at the twist of a dial. But in the digital TV era, the effects can be much more subtle. Wintertime ads in particular now have a distinct color scheme, whether the subjects being photographed actually have the color or not. 

    • #5
  6. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Lots of LUTs! 

    That’s what I say when I do a video route on my bike trainer, which I need to do right now. I’ve switched from Rouvy to FulGaz, which applies Lots of LUTs to the ride videos to brighten them up when the sun wasn’t out, and even when it was.  Whenever I try that with GoPro videos they end up looking terrible, with too much saturation in the wrong places.  But somebody at FulGaz know what he/she is doing, and they make for a pleasant cycling environment.  Still, it’s obvious that they are very LUTsified.

    • #6
  7. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Whatever happened to harvest gold and olive green?

    The Seventies ended – thank goodness.

    • #7
  8. Alan Aronoff Member
    Alan Aronoff
    @Alan Aronoff

    This year I didn’t notice the commercials. The game was far more interesting. I miss the Budweiser commercials with the horses playing football  and ultimately kicking a field goal while one rancher says to the other rancher on the fence “Do they normally do this”? and the other rancher say “No, they usually go for it.” Yes those were the good commercials in any hue.

     

    • #8
  9. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Percival (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Whatever happened to harvest gold and olive green?

    The Seventies ended – thank goodness.

    Burnt orange, though?

    • #9
  10. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Alan Aronoff (View Comment):

    This year I didn’t notice the commercials. The game was far more interesting. I miss the Budweiser commercials with the horses playing football and ultimately kicking a field goal while one rancher says to the other rancher on the fence “Do they normally do this”? and the other rancher say “No, they usually go for it.” Yes those were the good commercials in any hue.

    • #10
  11. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Seems to be all over that Pickerd series as well.

    • #11
  12. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Not to sound like I’m rootin’ for Putin, but the Russians started this.

     

    • #12
  13. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    How very odd.

    I think I went and played spike ball with the little cousins during the commercials, so I missed it. (Probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway, since I completely lack an aesthetic sense.)

    Whatever does it mean, do you think? And does it have anything to do with the balloons we’ve been shooting down? I think it must.

    • #13
  14. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Hm. Any chance the ads weren’t actually made that way, but the network did some color-shifting for airing? Because they wanted the ads to look consistent?

    These were taken from the YouTube versions of the ads, or screen grabs from my phone on streaming platforms. 

    Why would they want the ads to look consistent? Advertisers want to stand out. if I plunked down six million to run an ad, and the network hue-shifted the spot to make my golden sunlight look like the color of an alien computer monitor, I’d sue.

    This is an aesthetic decision made by the individual agencies and designers. The prevalence of it suggests it’s some subconscious group-think thing, where everyone just somehow decided of course!  this was was The Color,  and that was that.  

    I don’t want to claim any expertise, but I’ve studied a lot of commercials from a lot of eras. There are palettes that move through eras – warm earth-tones in the 70s, bright primary colors in the 80s – but those are general suisse of hues that reflect something that’s already all around us. There’s never been anything as pervasive and unnatural as this, with application to every possible emotional mood. At its worst it looks like industrial poison. 

    You have to wonder if people in the industry looked at all the Super Bowl ads and noted the tonal monotony, and woke up, and next year it’s going to be anything but. My money’s on green. 

    • #14
  15. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    Video editors have always been able to alter hues at the twist of a dial. But in the digital TV era, the effects can be much more subtle. Wintertime ads in particular now have a distinct color scheme, whether the subjects being photographed actually have the color or not.

    Exactly right. Lately it’s a cold blue with hints of metal. But if you look at the last year’s batch of car ads, with the Tucker Canyonero thrusting up the snowy pass, there’s a hint of the the teal-turquoise in the sky. 

    • #15
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    James Lileks (View Comment):
    Why would they want the ads to look consistent? Advertisers want to stand out. if I plunked down six million to run an ad, and the network hue-shifted the spot to make my golden sunlight look like the color of an alien computer monitor, I’d sue.

    Perhaps.  Are we sure the network contracts don’t allow them to do that?

    • #16
  17. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    Lots of LUTs! 

    Yes. Exactly. But: if I notice it, a mere consumer, surely the industry professions do, and adjust accordingly? How did everyone agree on the same look-up table? What made someone think “oh, noonday sun, let’s make that a sick wan blue.”

    • #17
  18. JennaStocker Member
    JennaStocker
    @JennaStocker

    Idk, maybe it’s a bit of cerulean:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=us52N76XA28

    • #18
  19. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    It may have to do with something somebody published about advertising, such as is found here:

    https://www.ignytebrands.com/wp-content/uploads/the-psychology-of-color-in-branding-ignyte.pdf

    Hmmn, turquoise represents: Communication, Clarity, Calmness, Inspiration, Self-Expression, and Healing.

    • #19
  20. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Arahant (View Comment):

    It may have to do with something somebody published about advertising, such as is found here:

    https://www.ignytebrands.com/wp-content/uploads/the-psychology-of-color-in-branding-ignyte.pdf

    Hmmn, turquoise represents: Communication, Clarity, Calmness, Inspiration, Self-Expression, and Healing.

    That covers a lot of ground. But it doesn’t cover apple slices with a dab of peanut butter.  

    • #20
  21. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    But it doesn’t cover apple slices with a dab of peanut butter.

    Well, that makes me hungry.

    • #21
  22. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    We can always go with the conspiracy theory angle. Wait a sec while I make this up:

    Blues are cool and cooling colors, and the powers that be in the world want people sedated in every way for the big changes coming, since they don’t want a revolution or resistance. Thus, they are now making all advertising calming, rather than inciting.

    • #22
  23. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Arahant (View Comment):

    We can always go with the conspiracy theory angle. Wait a sec while I make this up:

    Blues are cool and cooling colors, and the powers that be in the world want people sedated in every way for the big changes coming, since they don’t want a revolution or resistance. Thus, they are now making all advertising calming, rather than inciting.

    But does “calming” advertising encourage people to go out and buy what is being advertised?  I’m thinking not.

    • #23
  24. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Arahant (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    But it doesn’t cover apple slices with a dab of peanut butter.

    Well, that makes me hungry.

    Maybe turquoise should represent hunger, too, then. 

    I wonder who makes those things up, and how much the people who make those things up get paid. 

    My wife ordered a bunch of paint sample sheets so we can decide on a paint color for our bathroom walls. Most of them tend toward turquoise (in my opinion) some more, some less.  None of them make me think Communication, Clarity, Calmness, Inspiration, Self-Expression, and Healing.

     

    • #24
  25. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    How very odd.

    I think I went and played spike ball with the little cousins during the commercials, so I missed it. (Probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway, since I completely lack an aesthetic sense.)

    Whatever does it mean, do you think? And does it have anything to do with the balloons we’ve been shooting down? I think it must.

    I don’t think there’s any intention, other than trying to be au courant.

    Except that it’s not, really.  This color had a vogue a few years ago in movie posters, usually paired with orange or yellow. But I just realized that it reminds me of the craze for Bondi Blue, the color of the first iMac in 1998.

    It’s possible the ad designers are channeling a childhood hue.

    I always loved turquoise and pink, but that was probably due to the boomerang-patterned Formica in our kitchen: nostalgia, innocent years, happiness, all that.

    Maybe that’s it. Subconscious retro attachment. So many manifestations in the modern ads look unsettling and toxic, but might that be a generational difference?  The boomers read it one way, the 30-somethings another way entirely.

    • #25
  26. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    It’s also been pointed out in the past, in various places such as consumer electronics magazines etc, that many people – perhaps even most – don’t have their TV and computer screens adjusted properly.

    • #26
  27. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    As for avocado and harvest gold: we reject the palettes of our adolescence, and tell ourselves it’s on empirically-proven aesthetic grounds. That’s bad! then we’re appalled when the people who come after us find something interesting in the hues we rejected, and reclaim the aesthetic: have they no taste? Maybe they don’t, but they’re not looking at the colors through the same emotional prism, so they read their own reconstructed cultural narratives into them. 

    • #27
  28. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Arahant (View Comment):

    We can always go with the conspiracy theory angle. Wait a sec while I make this up:

    Blues are cool and cooling colors, and the powers that be in the world want people sedated in every way for the big changes coming, since they don’t want a revolution or resistance. Thus, they are now making all advertising calming, rather than inciting.

    Blues are calming, and yes, research says turquoise is all those nice wonderful things. But these are not really calming or inspirational applications of the hue. The aggregate effect is somewhat alienating – although of course the advertisers aren’t interested in the aggregate effect, just the individual impact of the moment. 

    • #28
  29. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Arahant (View Comment):

    It may have to do with something somebody published about advertising, such as is found here:

    https://www.ignytebrands.com/wp-content/uploads/the-psychology-of-color-in-branding-ignyte.pdf

    Hmmn, turquoise represents: Communication, Clarity, Calmness, Inspiration, Self-Expression, and Healing.

    That’s what I am guessing happened. 

    • #29
  30. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    We can always go with the conspiracy theory angle. Wait a sec while I make this up:

    Blues are cool and cooling colors, and the powers that be in the world want people sedated in every way for the big changes coming, since they don’t want a revolution or resistance. Thus, they are now making all advertising calming, rather than inciting.

    But does “calming” advertising encourage people to go out and buy what is being advertised? I’m thinking not.

    The future is not in having people come to buy things.  The future is in having them pay for subscriptions that give us access to their bank accounts in return for which we send them stuff now and then.

    • #30
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