Colour Me Crazy!!!

What’s your favourite colour? Whatever it may be, it has a lot to say about who are - for example - what your likes and interests are. While the colours you like can reflect your interests, they can also reflect and change your mood. In media, colour is very important because it can create the specific message or tone needed in order to appeal to a specific target audience. For example, one of the most common colour schemes used for a particular target audience is Red, Blue and Yellow, a.k.a. the Primary Colours. This colour scheme is used commonly to target children 7 years old and under, as primary colours are a reflection of youthfulness in Western society.

Many companies that have been in business for a significant amount of years rebrand their image every decade or so in order to appeal to a new audience – whether it be older, younger, or the same demographic.

An example of this “colour rebranding” has been done with the fast food chain McDonalds. In the early 1990’s, McDonalds used primary colours (Red, Blue and Yellow) in their advertisements to attract young kids ages 5-12. Now, in 2011, McDonalds has rebranded themselves to appeal to an older audience (ages 13-25). How did McDonalds do this? They simply changed their colour scheme. Instead of using happy, youthful colours like yellow, blue and red in their advertisements, McDonalds’ new main colours are black and white. Black and white are more sophisticated colours, giving their restaurant a classier look, ergo, appealing to an older audience.

Beyond primary colours, there is what is called complimentary, analogous and monochromatic colours. These “types of colours” balance with one another to create a uniform look, while still appealing to a target audience. Have you ever watched the Academy Awards and noticed that the majority of the red-haired women on the carpet wear green dresses? It looks nice doesn’t it? Why is this? Cause green and red are complementary colours! So are purple and yellow, and orange and blue!

It is very important to choose your colours wisely when decorating a bedroom, website, or branding a company, in order to make it appealing not only to the eye, but also to the target audience!