pink in the pink
PINK IN THE PINK
18/10/2023
99% Brand awareness world-wide. Very, very few brands have achieved this. When asking some random people which brand we have in mind, they will probably be surprised about the right answer. There could not be any greater hint than the title of this article. Off course we mean the Barbie brand.
If anyone will hit the streets this season, wearing only pink clothes, he or she will be greeted with abundant smiles and requests to pose for a picture. Maybe not in every country, but in the majority, reactions would be overwhelmingly positive.
Would you have dressed up in pink as a male - in Germany in 1940, or any other country until not so long ago - the reactions would have been much less positive.
The Pink Triangle
Before the popularity of the rainbow flag, associated with LGBT+, the main symbol for homosexuals was the pink triangle. Originally a 'badge of shame', used by Nazi-Germany to identify the gay people they put in concentration camps.
Why pink? The reason stays unclear, since pink was not a colour associated with homosexuality, it was not even associated with baby girls at that time. Maybe the Nazi's needed distinctive colours, and red, green, yellow, black and blue were already occupied for other prisoners. A less known fact is that they chose a darker shade of pink, lilac, for 'bible scholars' and Jehova's Witnesses.
source: Wikicommons | Nazi concentration camp badges for prisoners.
Although the Nazi's meant the colour pink to symbolise something they saw as very negative and hostile to their society, the connotations we have with the colour itself are rather positive: Pink represents "politeness, friendship, affection, tenderness, inner peace, compassion. Both red and pink represent love. The colour red represents heat and passion, while the colour pink represents romance and charm." The colour pink is pastel; a soft colour to us. It is friendly, somehow fluffy, sweet, and seems completely harmless.
Organisations representing homosexuals adopted the Nazi pink triangle in the 1970's as a symbol for their fight for equal rights and against discrimination and hate. But before that, and even before Barbie went partly 'pink' in 1961, we had completely different associations with this colour.
Pink for boys?
The 'blue for baby boys and pink for baby girls' is something from after the second world war. Eleonor Roosevelt, former First Lady, wore a pink dress to an inaugural reception in 1945, first lady Mamie Eisenhower did the same in 1953, and with that it was settled that pink is a colour for females.
It used to be the other way round. The trade publication 'Earnshaw's Infants' wrote in June 1918: "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”
In Japan, the colour pink had a masculine association. The pink blossom of their Sakura tree is said to have represented Samurai warriors who fell in battle. Until the second world war, male swimsuits and suits for "Strongmen" were frequently striped red and white, and therefore looked pink from a distance. Pink was related to it's mother colour red, a passionate, active and more aggressive colour, and therefore suitable for boys, even in a pastel version.
In "The Great Gatsby", a 1925 novel, Jay Gatsby goes to lunch in a pink suit. In the 18th century, it was perfectly normal - although uncommon, because expensive - to wear a pink silk suit with flowers embroidered on it. In that time, pink was the colour of the rich and famous throughout all of France, men and women alike. Back then, pink signified aristocracy, not femininity, and especially king Louis XV was a huge fan of the colour, as was his mistress, Madame de Pompadour.
source: e-bay / glamadelaide.com.au | Left: the original 1959 Barbie Doll. Right: a 2015 re-edition. Mattel is trying its best to pretend there was more pink in 1959 then there actually was
But then came the first ladies in their pink dresses, and Marilyn Monroe in a "shocking pink" coloured dress, and then came ... Barbie. In 1959. In a black and white dress. With a black and white logo, Barbie went full pink only in the 1970's.
And then came the Barbie movie. Wrapped in plastic, It's fantastic. It's everywhere. Barbiecore!
Pinker shades of Pink
Not very far from "shocking pink", there is Pantone Rhodamine Red. It is in fact totally pink, and totally magenta. In 1996, T-mobil (later T-Mobile) patented 'their' colour pink. They could patent their lead colour, together with other large brands like Milka, after a US supreme court case in 1995, where the court unanimously decided that that a trademark can consist “purely and simply, of a colour.” And so company colours got protected, but shades of pink can look very much alike. Most people will have trouble to distinguish Mattel Barbie Pink (Pantone 219c) from T-Mobile's Magenta. And those shades look different depending on the media where they are used: the rgb-version looks different depending on your monitor. The printed version looks different depending on the paper quality.
source: T-Mobile | The original Pink versus the New Pink - what a difference, amazing!
And so the CEO of a small American insurance company, Lemonade, was very surprised to receive a letter from T-Mobile's lawyers in 2019, in which they where told not to use 'their' pink. In fact, they told Lemonade they also could not use two other shades of pinkish. But Lemonade fought back and are using pink until today. What did T-Mobile do? With a lot of fanfare and superlatives, they announced in 2022 that that new company colour will be ... New Magenta. According to T-Mobile's CMO Mike Katz: "New Magenta is a vision, a feeling, an emotion in and of itself (...) I briefly hesitated to bring this colour into the world ... was it too bold? Was the world ready for such a drastic change? But New Magenta is too magnificent not to be shared.” O yes, a very drastic change indeed.
If anyone will hit the streets this season, wearing only pink clothes, he or she will be greeted with abundant smiles and requests to pose for a picture. Maybe not in every country, but in the majority, reactions would be overwhelmingly positive.
Would you have dressed up in pink as a male - in Germany in 1940, or any other country until not so long ago - the reactions would have been much less positive.
The Pink Triangle
Before the popularity of the rainbow flag, associated with LGBT+, the main symbol for homosexuals was the pink triangle. Originally a 'badge of shame', used by Nazi-Germany to identify the gay people they put in concentration camps.
Why pink? The reason stays unclear, since pink was not a colour associated with homosexuality, it was not even associated with baby girls at that time. Maybe the Nazi's needed distinctive colours, and red, green, yellow, black and blue were already occupied for other prisoners. A less known fact is that they chose a darker shade of pink, lilac, for 'bible scholars' and Jehova's Witnesses.
source: Wikicommons | Nazi concentration camp badges for prisoners.
Although the Nazi's meant the colour pink to symbolise something they saw as very negative and hostile to their society, the connotations we have with the colour itself are rather positive: Pink represents "politeness, friendship, affection, tenderness, inner peace, compassion. Both red and pink represent love. The colour red represents heat and passion, while the colour pink represents romance and charm." The colour pink is pastel; a soft colour to us. It is friendly, somehow fluffy, sweet, and seems completely harmless.
Organisations representing homosexuals adopted the Nazi pink triangle in the 1970's as a symbol for their fight for equal rights and against discrimination and hate. But before that, and even before Barbie went partly 'pink' in 1961, we had completely different associations with this colour.
Pink for boys?
The 'blue for baby boys and pink for baby girls' is something from after the second world war. Eleonor Roosevelt, former First Lady, wore a pink dress to an inaugural reception in 1945, first lady Mamie Eisenhower did the same in 1953, and with that it was settled that pink is a colour for females.
It used to be the other way round. The trade publication 'Earnshaw's Infants' wrote in June 1918: "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”
In Japan, the colour pink had a masculine association. The pink blossom of their Sakura tree is said to have represented Samurai warriors who fell in battle. Until the second world war, male swimsuits and suits for "Strongmen" were frequently striped red and white, and therefore looked pink from a distance. Pink was related to it's mother colour red, a passionate, active and more aggressive colour, and therefore suitable for boys, even in a pastel version.
In "The Great Gatsby", a 1925 novel, Jay Gatsby goes to lunch in a pink suit. In the 18th century, it was perfectly normal - although uncommon, because expensive - to wear a pink silk suit with flowers embroidered on it. In that time, pink was the colour of the rich and famous throughout all of France, men and women alike. Back then, pink signified aristocracy, not femininity, and especially king Louis XV was a huge fan of the colour, as was his mistress, Madame de Pompadour.
source: e-bay / glamadelaide.com.au | Left: the original 1959 Barbie Doll. Right: a 2015 re-edition. Mattel is trying its best to pretend there was more pink in 1959 then there actually was
But then came the first ladies in their pink dresses, and Marilyn Monroe in a "shocking pink" coloured dress, and then came ... Barbie. In 1959. In a black and white dress. With a black and white logo, Barbie went full pink only in the 1970's.
And then came the Barbie movie. Wrapped in plastic, It's fantastic. It's everywhere. Barbiecore!
Pinker shades of Pink
Not very far from "shocking pink", there is Pantone Rhodamine Red. It is in fact totally pink, and totally magenta. In 1996, T-mobil (later T-Mobile) patented 'their' colour pink. They could patent their lead colour, together with other large brands like Milka, after a US supreme court case in 1995, where the court unanimously decided that that a trademark can consist “purely and simply, of a colour.” And so company colours got protected, but shades of pink can look very much alike. Most people will have trouble to distinguish Mattel Barbie Pink (Pantone 219c) from T-Mobile's Magenta. And those shades look different depending on the media where they are used: the rgb-version looks different depending on your monitor. The printed version looks different depending on the paper quality.
source: T-Mobile | The original Pink versus the New Pink - what a difference, amazing!
And so the CEO of a small American insurance company, Lemonade, was very surprised to receive a letter from T-Mobile's lawyers in 2019, in which they where told not to use 'their' pink. In fact, they told Lemonade they also could not use two other shades of pinkish. But Lemonade fought back and are using pink until today. What did T-Mobile do? With a lot of fanfare and superlatives, they announced in 2022 that that new company colour will be ... New Magenta. According to T-Mobile's CMO Mike Katz: "New Magenta is a vision, a feeling, an emotion in and of itself (...) I briefly hesitated to bring this colour into the world ... was it too bold? Was the world ready for such a drastic change? But New Magenta is too magnificent not to be shared.” O yes, a very drastic change indeed.