Think about the popular fast food outlets for a second… what do they all have in common?
The colours red and yellow! Yep, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s and even In-N-Out Burger all share the same stand out colours. But it’s not just Big Food capitalising on colourful marketing. When we wrote “How much sugar is in that… yoghurt?” last year, we lined up all the products for a picture and suddenly realised all the labels were blue. Surely there’s a reason why…
Colour and your brain.
Did you know, a whopping 93 per cent of people buy products based on their visual appearance and 80 per cent of us believe colour is totally responsible for brand recognition?! But colours aren’t just important for branding, they can tap into different parts of your brain too. Put simply, different colours can make you feel certain emotions, like feeling hungry or having the urge to shop. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular colours…
Blue.
Remember those yoghurt labels we were talking about? Well, blue is often used by health and diet companies as it works to suppress our appetite, while persuading us to trust the brand. But remember, just because the label says it’s healthy, doesn’t mean it is. Always flip the packet and check the ingredients list before you get sucked in by that pretty blue label.
Red and yellow.
When you see the duo of red and yellow, get ready for the hunger pangs to strike. It’s been found that red can speed up blood flow, which can kick your digestive system up a notch and make you hungry. Red is also a very emotive colour, often associated with passion and enthusiasm, so all of a sudden you’re not just hungry, but you’re starving!
Meanwhile, yellow can boost your mood and encourage impulse purchases (AKA picking up takeaways on your drive home!). Hence why those fast food giants all rock those red and yellow logos.
Purple.
When you see that famous royal purple colour, do your chocolate cravings kick in? Turns out, it might not your fault after all. Our (perhaps not so) clever brains may have subconsciously associated Cadbury’s purple with the sweet taste and the emotional response you get from eating chocolate. So when you see purple, your cravings go into overdrive, and you may just end up with a choccy bar in your hand. Eek!
But now you know how those colours are tricking you, the next time you feel the hunger kick in, ask yourself if you’re actually hungry or if it’s all in the colours!
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