Being in the digital industry, everything from design, through PPC and SEO, to web development is of interest to our agency.
YAt this time of year, one of the subjects that’s always timely and relevant is the colour system company Pantone’s “Colour of the Year”. This is an annual event (obviously) that selects a colour for the following year, supported by a range of inspirational images, words, and merchandise. Of course, you can always buy Pantone mugs and merch any time of the year but the COTY series is always “limited edition”.
It was Peach
I first heard about Pantone’s COTY in 2018 and wrote a blog for our agency, mainly because it’s nice to cover industry news, but also the colour that year was a tone of purple, which was prominent in our logo at the time. Then our writing department became too busy to work on the theme again until last year, when Pantone announced that the Colour of the Year was Peach Fuzz. I’ll admit it, I loved the dreamy imagery that accompanied the announcement and I used the official image of the fluffy sofa merging into the clouds in a room in the sky. It was surreal and very Dali-esque.
However, the practical part of my mind said “how on earth are we going to use this?” Peach is a colour that’s somewhere between pink and orange, and I hadn’t seen it used anywhere in any of our clients’ brand guidelines.
Roll on December 2024…
I was up in London on Thursday the 5th and I’d worked out that Pantone would make their announcement around this time. Getting back home, I read that whilst I was in the capital, Pantone had indeed announced their new Colour of the Year for 2025 and I’d already planned to write about it.
Now it’s Brown
Hoping for something a bit “wow” I eagerly opened up the link to the official news page and found out that 2025’s colour is… brown!
I struggled to find a practical use for the peach, and now it was brown. Pantone 17-1230 is code-named “Mocha Mousse”. The official artwork included pictures of mousse, fashion, and ambiguous but less surreal than last year’s shots of curtains, swirls, and arty shots of colour in liquid.
I tried to spin the news item I wrote for our blog and focus on the fact that Wix Studio has some digital assets to support the campaign, and Motorola produced a fashionable phone to mark the event, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed that it boiled down to the fact that the new colour is brown.
Not the Only One
As a marketer you’re always looking for the best in everything. Sell the sizzle not the steak, as the mantra goes. I’ve even had people say to my face that marketers are bullshitters and, being an honest person, that’s just not true. But when Seth Godin writes a book called All Marketers Are Liars and you read the official Pantone blog for Mocha Mousse, it’s hard to justify your squeaky clean stance.
Whilst I’m always one for positivity and I agree that t0nes of brown can be rich and warming, some of the marketing copy for 17-1230 is a bit much.
Things like “answering our desire for comfort” isn’t that inspiring. I have a brown leather sofa, I’m not sure which Pantone colour they died the dead cows’ hides. “Underpinning our desire for everyday pleasures” is another one. Not everything I enjoy is brown. “Thoughtful indulgence” pushes it too far. I’ve already had enough mousse, too much dessert. As for extending “our perceptions of browns from being humble and grounded to embrace aspirational and luxe” I’m really not so sure.
I get it, I really do, and I’m not complaining. It’s just that, as a design agency, we build websites, create landing pages, conduct PPC and SEO campaigns, and design print materials. Our clients are in IT, electronics, health, and finance. We don’t do fashion or home décor.
And I’m not the only one. I’ve stumbled across at least two high profile articles actually mocking the colour. No details are necessary at this point in time but let’s just say that the narrative was far from complementary.
Looking Forward to December 2025
In all honesty, I’m looking for something more inspirational and utilitarian in next year’s programme. Pantone’s Colour of the Year 2026 needs to be another green I reckon. We’ve had some blues, so they might not be back, but maybe a red?
Whatever happens, it’s great that Pantone announce their colours for the year, but I’m just not feeling it with Mocha Mousse.
Let’s see what happens next year, aye? Same time, same place? Different colour?!