clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Flipped

Is the ugliest color in the world actually...beautiful?

New, 1 comment

Some of history’s greatest artists apparently think so

Opaque couché, a.k.a Pantone 448 C, a.k.a. "drab dark brown," the color that an Australian marketing firm determined was the most unappealing color in the world and put on cigarette packs to get people to stop smoking, has been having quite a moment on the internet over the last week or so. Basically every website, including ours, has been crapping all over the crap-like shade of vaguely greenish brown. Every website, that is, except for Hyperallergic, which points out that a hue similar to opaque couché features heavily in the clothing of the Mona Lisa...

...as well as several other famous paintings. So now we don't know what to believe. We do suddenly have an odd craving for cigarettes, though...

In Defense of the World’s Ugliest Color, "Opaque Couché" [Hyperallergic]

Ugliest color in the world determined by science [Curbed]