Dec. 14, 2025
White Washing? Pan-Tone Deaf? Why The 2026 Color Of The Year Is Pissing People Off
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RSS Feed The Pantone Color Institute has selected its annual color of the year for 2026: Cloud Dancer, or as some have pointed out, “white." In a year of anti DEI initiatives, controversial “good genes” ads, choosing a white shade that Pantone has said “allows all colors to shine” has left a lot of people, seeing red.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody.
00:00:03
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, December fourteenth, and we can tell you what you're going to be wearing next year. We can tell you what you're going to be decorating with next year. Yes, this is one of my favorite announcements of the year. It's Panton's Color of the Year. You know, I have been obsessed with colors. The names of colors infacted something we've laughed about over the years.
00:00:28
Speaker 3: This is ridiculous. A color of the year. Who gets to decide? No, this is something it's supposed to be fun, but it's new. I am one hundred percent learning that this was even a thing as of the past couple of weeks.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: I don't know why I have always been obsessed with this, but Pantone Color Institute has been choosing an annual color of the Year since nineteen ninety nine. And maybe it's just because I was used to this being a part of local news or the Newskicker. And maybe I'm because I'm a girl and I like design and I like to think about what the colored trends are. Maybe it's all of that, but I always get excited, not just because they tell us what color is going to be the a color, but how they go about doing it, how they describe it as.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Always a hoot. They take this very seriously.
00:01:12
Speaker 3: Who are they?
00:01:13
Speaker 4: By the way, what was Pantona? What do they do?
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Like?
00:01:16
Speaker 2: What is there there a color institute?
00:01:19
Speaker 3: Does that even mean like Crayola?
00:01:21
Speaker 2: Like they No, not like Crayola. I just know that they study colors. They have they name colors, people have paint colors, design colors.
00:01:31
Speaker 3: Is it a paint company.
00:01:32
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's a paint color. I just know that it's a color institute.
00:01:36
Speaker 3: Okay, So I didn't know there was this. I'm learning so much right now about this institute.
00:01:41
Speaker 2: But please continue. So do you have any guesses what this? Have you seen any headlines? Do you have any guesses about what the color of the year?
00:01:51
Speaker 3: I will never be able to guess because you all, I say you all, some of you don't seem to think that there are just eight colors, right, We're all taught this as children. We get the first box of Cryon, there's eight colors, and so everything I see it's not just green. It has to be kelly green or forest green or this kind of green, or it's always it's too much. Sometimes it's just green. And so I get it's annoying that every time I point to a color, you make up some Oh yeah, that's ruby, midnight moon.
00:02:21
Speaker 1: What No, I might say something like that's per simon.
00:02:27
Speaker 3: No, no, no.
00:02:29
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe I would say, like that that's color cinnamon, or that color is kelly green. Like I do distinguish among like the blues, like what blue is that?
00:02:38
Speaker 3: I don't ever say what blue is that. I go, Wow, that's blue, and you go, oh no, that's more of a summertime butterfly daytime.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: I've said cornflower blue and you've made fun of me about it.
00:02:49
Speaker 3: That makes sense, Just okay, it's just me. I find. Everybody's into their colors the thing I find. But it's just frustrating when I hear the names because every time it sounds like you just made up something.
00:02:58
Speaker 2: All right, So maybe I get it from Pantone. But anyway, this year's pick actually has proven to be controversial, which I can't recall a color being controversial before this year.
00:03:14
Speaker 4: It's where we are, it's everything.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: So now we've got a controversial color of the ear. Here is the color of the year, Cloud Dancer. Shut up your reaction, My love.
00:03:28
Speaker 3: What color is? Cloud is sound dancer, cloud dancer, Cloud Dancer, cloud Dancer. So is Cloud Dancer some kind of an electric blue?
00:03:39
Speaker 2: No, you'd like me to describe Pantone's description of what cloud Dancer is.
00:03:44
Speaker 4: Can't wait for this?
00:03:45
Speaker 1: You were gonna love this?
00:03:47
Speaker 2: A lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection. A billowy white imbued with serenity, Cloud Dancer in urages true relaxation and focus, allowing the mind to wander and creativity to breathe, making room for innovation. There's more. With its expansive presence, Cloud Dancer invites us space where function and feeling intertwine to build atmospheres of serenity and spaciousness, providing a refuge of visual cleanliness that inspires well being and lightness.
00:04:25
Speaker 4: White.
00:04:26
Speaker 3: So you just told me the color of the year is white, correct, and thus the controversy. And it's a special white. It's a white that's better than all the other colors out there. Look how wonderful that white sounds. This is the white we should all aspire to. This white? Is that what you just read.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: To me, I'm reading from Pantone, okay.
00:04:51
Speaker 3: And I hope everybody please don't folk it continues.
00:04:54
Speaker 4: It shouldn't.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: It does though, Okay, can I continue?
00:04:59
Speaker 3: Please let me hear more about The white.
00:05:01
Speaker 1: Interject is often as you like, I'm so okay with that.
00:05:04
Speaker 4: Does it say how it battles black?
00:05:06
Speaker 3: Is it really really good at taking on the opposite the black colors? Is what?
00:05:12
Speaker 1: It doesn't say that, But here's what it does say.
00:05:15
Speaker 2: Cloud Dancer reflects a universally shared experience. Whenever we are the world, we all look up to the clouds for inspiration and wonder.
00:05:26
Speaker 4: Wherever we are in the world.
00:05:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, In the simple act of looking up, we're connected by the drifting lightness of clouds. That universality is a huge part of why Cloud Dancer was selected as the Pantone Color of the Year twenty twenty six. So white unites. Cloud Dancer is a key structural color whose versatility provides scaffolding for the color spectrum, allowing all colors to shine. In a world where color has been synonymous with personal expression, this is a shade that can adapt, harmonize, and create contract, bringing a feeling of airy lightness to all product applications and environments, whether making a standalone statement or combined with other hues.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: Is there more?
00:06:14
Speaker 2: No, but I actually can talk. That was the gist of how they described the color and why.
00:06:19
Speaker 1: They chose it.
00:06:20
Speaker 4: Do you see the color there in front of uh?
00:06:22
Speaker 1: Yes, it is it. It's white.
00:06:24
Speaker 3: It's white.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: It's white.
00:06:25
Speaker 3: Okay. A couple of questions here when they do this every year, are they creating a new color or this is something that's just been out there that they're highlighting.
00:06:34
Speaker 2: It's a color that they have in their spectrum that they highlight. So they have named all of these colors. And by the way, anyone who look, if you have ever looked to paint a white wall, I just because I love color and I love painting, and you know all of that. So if you go look up white, there are I don't even know, hundreds of shades of white.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: So this is a particular shade they chose it.
00:06:54
Speaker 2: Only you can only probably tell what color it is when you put it next to another color.
00:06:58
Speaker 4: It's a light work white.
00:07:00
Speaker 3: This is this is the best way, so you're gonna get this is the one.
00:07:06
Speaker 4: This is a good way.
00:07:07
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:07:08
Speaker 2: I don't even have to get into why the controversy, because it's fairly obvious, is it.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: Okay, can you do something for me? Give me the first that when you did the description, the very first line that the first part you open.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: With cloud Dancer a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection. Next line, the next line is a billowy white imbued with serenity. Cloud Dancer encourages true relaxation and focus, allowing the mind to wander and creativity to breathe, making room for innovation.
00:07:48
Speaker 4: Okay, what was the line about us all looking up no matter where.
00:07:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's when they talk about the clouds. Yes, cloud Dancer reflects a universally shared experience. Wherever we are in the world, we all look up to the clouds for inspiration and wonder.
00:08:03
Speaker 4: Okay, so what's the controversy.
00:08:06
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's two people online have blasted the shade for being bleak and boring and possibly not a color at all.
00:08:14
Speaker 3: Okay, so there we go. That's just what you expect. No matter what col you pick, someone gonna say, oh, why did you pick that one? Oh, that's a silly one. I don't like that one. You shouldn't gone, right, that's that basic one.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: That's absolutely every year there's someone who like.
00:08:24
Speaker 3: Come on, that's not controversial, right, not that much.
00:08:27
Speaker 2: That's okay, Well, I'll give you all that. There are lots of funny reacts online. Others have denounced Cloud Dancer as tone deaf and whitewashing, expressing other controversial takes, especially with DEI policies this year, with the way we've seen everything be anti woke, They're like, all the years to choose the color white, this year was probably not the best one to do.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: So okay, I don't know what did they use particular, what their standard is when they pick thee Do they just pick them out of a hat?
00:08:56
Speaker 4: Is it random?
00:08:57
Speaker 2: Is it there's a word and they vote And they actually have responded specifically to the controversy.
00:09:02
Speaker 4: There's a board, Yes, how many on the board?
00:09:05
Speaker 2: There's a global team. I don't know how many people are on the global team. Oh yeah, every year that make this decision. It's a big deal. They start working on the next year's color January second, they said, so this is a big deal.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: You'll appreciate this.
00:09:19
Speaker 2: After hearing the description of the color read during today's The Today Show, Al Roker said, otherwise known as white. So it's very much been like Al Rokers. That's the actually only person we have, like on television who is announcing this making a little snide comment, but the other So here's some other examples of reaction online. Your choice is about as inspired as mayonnaise. Someone else said, pantone deaf. Someone says it's giving unseasoned chicken. And then here is another one. It seems as if this selection and the content created around it was conceived in a vacuum completely removed from our collectives, social, and political present. I'd hope a brand as that has this much cultural impact wouldn't operate with such a glaring blind spot.
00:10:08
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, maybe I don't know it. I have a should they just go about their work and not think about, or worry about, or try to react to anything going on out there. You can make an argument that that's the way we should be going about this. We shouldn't just react to everything going on. We're going to do our work the same and it's not going to change. That's one argument. I'm not on board with that one. I don't like that. If you just say, well, we're just doing our thing. Huh, I wish I appreciate and what you're explaining to me how big of a deal this is every year? Then you this is a missed opportunity. This was a tone deaf thing, and I don't think it's going too far right. If they would have picked something else, there would have been no controversy about why didn't you pick white? This was a good year. Nobody's gonna say that, of course not. But in doing so, you know where we all are, and you know what we're doing. This company's Is this an American US based company? I mean consider that as well. Maybe it's a company that's a base somewhere else and they don't give a damn about whatever politics might be going on and whatever strife we have internally in our own country. Maybe that's it. So I don't know, it's those things need to be taken into consideration, but I can understand why. And my reaction is the same as well, ropes.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: What the actual health Yeah, And by the way, people who were upset by this choice pointed out to other major tone deaf ads like the Sydney Sweeney ad, you know they have American Eagle. They've talked about like that, We've been here, done that, We've seen this year create problems when we start making references and not recognizing how they can be received by everyone, not just a certain targeted And to say that this company that understands its global reach, that understands its social impact, and the fact that yes, people look forward to is that they had to consider what that reaction would be if they chose a white hue. And by the way, this is the first time this company has ever chosen a white hue.
00:12:07
Speaker 3: Great timing. Just go ahead and get it out, get it out there. So so we go back to what was their color in twenty twenty, was that black?
00:12:14
Speaker 2: I was going to go over that.
00:12:15
Speaker 1: Actually, funny enough, it was ultimate gray.
00:12:18
Speaker 4: In twenty twenty, Ultimate gray.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: That was twenty twenty.
00:12:22
Speaker 3: You know why I went to that year? That was George Floyd, that that was a racial reckoning year. I don't know how tone, I don't know what they're doing. It's bizarre. It's a bizarre and it's boring. I mean, it's white. Okay, you can describe white as great as you want to and call it a cloudy and dancing and.
00:12:38
Speaker 2: Billowie and yes, all right, so when we come back, we are going to give the official response from Pantone Color Institute about all this backlash because they are very aware of it.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: And yes, we'll go over some of the other colors of the.
00:12:52
Speaker 2: Year just because TJ loves hearing all of those descriptions. Welcome back everyone. We continue to talk about pantones color of the Year, Cloud Dancer. They thought it was billowy and light and unifying, and turns out lots of people have different thoughts on this year's choice.
00:13:21
Speaker 3: This is where we are. I mean, even a color is controversial. Is that we argue about everything. If you open a podcasts and saying it's Sunday, somebody will be pissed. And I said, well not in my country. It's timeline. That shouldn't They like, we got mad. Our first reaction, our only reaction is outrage to everything. That is our emotional reaction.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: And we all see things and receive things through the lens in which our experience take us and that's just the way human beings are.
00:13:51
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, but when a company like this doesn't seem to take into consideration everyone and then they give us on line that makes it sound as if this was an unbra I don't know, maybe this was a very I want to say, sincere effort.
00:14:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:14:04
Speaker 3: I don't want to take anything away from them, but I can understand and my hearing you read it. I'm sitting across the table from you reading about the cloud dancer that's white, and it's this wonderful it's the best of all hues, and this is going to bring us all together and it allows other colors. I know people like their other colors, but this white is the one that makes it all possible for you other colors.
00:14:27
Speaker 2: God, yeah, they did not think this through, you know, And that's just that speaks to why you want We don't know. I don't know who's on this global team, but clearly when you have diversity, other people's lenses are suddenly recognized and seen through.
00:14:43
Speaker 1: And then you're like, ooh, I can see how that might be taken ouch.
00:14:46
Speaker 3: So please diversity with authority. You can't just put one black woman in the corner. Here's a Hispanic man in this other corner. They're in the room fighting fifteen other people that don't look like them, trying to convince them that hey, about this color. I just want y'all to know. I mean, it's tough. You have to give them the authority to say, hey, y'all, this is not maybe worth the risk.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: All right. I'm curious to get your response to their response.
00:15:16
Speaker 3: All right, here was good?
00:15:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, here was their official response. I want to hear what in it's long?
00:15:21
Speaker 3: Am I going to like this?
00:15:23
Speaker 2: I don't know, I really don't know. The global team at the Pantone Color Institute selected this color for its emotional and creative resonance, not as a statement on politics, ideology, or race. Pantone does not assign political narratives to color to select or avoid a hue on that basis would give such narratives a significance they do not hold in this process. We understand that people bring different feelings to its meaning. Color shifts depending on context and perspective. Cloud Dancer is a color about relaxation, reflection, and creativity. The Pantone Color of the Year selection process is rooted in an understanding of humanity, drawing on close observation and global trend analysis to recognize what is emerging across the design landscape. It considers the moods a color can evoke and the experiences it can shape in design.
00:16:19
Speaker 3: End quote, how do they select these colors?
00:16:22
Speaker 2: It's a global panel and they go through it. They are recognized globally as a leading source of color expertise, and so they provide color insights and solutions, collaborating with our clients to strategically address color challenges and develop a color and design approach consistent with brand vision.
00:16:42
Speaker 4: Is it a coincidence?
00:16:43
Speaker 3: I'm saying it's possible that they use some process in which they I don't know, they see what colors are trending out there in the art world or whatever they may do, and put them all together and say, oh, this is the one that's now clearly yes, that's it.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: That is what they do. They study trus they study where a design is headed, and they consult with companies to pick the right colors for their products that will be attractive to people where we are in society. So they're really getting ahead of where they think trends are and where they're headed.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: So with that argument, then this might be just a coincidence that this process did its thing like it always does, they say, and this just happened to be what came out at this time. You also, I could make an argument Robes that maybe they knew what exactly what they were doing, because I ain't ever heard of Pantone until this year and their color of the year. Oh really, So people are discussing this thing out and I know a lot of people might hear that and say, well, how do you not know? DJ? And you clearly say this has been a big thing every year. Yeah, but I don't know, have sales been lagging? Has their name not been talked about enough? Did anyone over there suggest, you know what, this will get people talking about us and we have some cover, we be able to cover our butts and we'll be in the news cycle.
00:17:51
Speaker 2: Maybe, Well, they're always looking, you know, and this is they plan it out at the end of the year. People look forward to it, you know. I think maybe it's funny. I think just being in the Good Warning America, we covered this every year. But I think maybe I always ended up with the story. So that's why I used to look forward to Pretty sure I didn't do it. I'm pretty sure you were and I did a lot of ridiculous stuff.
00:18:09
Speaker 1: But some of these so last year I remember you were traveling.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: Is I think the only time I did Morning Run solo what you were and Sabine were going to the Jingle Ball in Los Angeles. And that is when twenty twenty five Color of the Year came out and it was Mocha Moose, So that was this year?
00:18:26
Speaker 3: Is that?
00:18:27
Speaker 4: Wait? Is a brownish something of them?
00:18:29
Speaker 1: Did you see that Mocha Moose? A lot?
00:18:31
Speaker 2: Like when you think about design trends and what people are wearing brown.
00:18:36
Speaker 4: I see brown every year.
00:18:37
Speaker 3: Yes, all right.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty four is Color of the Year. Peach fuzz?
00:18:42
Speaker 4: Is it peach color? Yeah?
00:18:45
Speaker 2: Like a light orange?
00:18:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, peach fuzz, peach fuzz.
00:18:48
Speaker 4: Okay, you go.
00:18:50
Speaker 2: I got all the way through twenty twenty I could keep going. Twenty twenty threes Viva magenta. Purple, well, not really purple. It's in between purple and and it's a bright one.
00:19:02
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two very peary.
00:19:05
Speaker 4: Don't even know where is that green?
00:19:06
Speaker 2: That's an intense periwinkle. Stop, do you know what periwinkle is?
00:19:10
Speaker 3: You say it pear, And I think I thought the green pear like a pear.
00:19:14
Speaker 2: Very pary, That makes sense, but it is p e r. I so very periwinkle. What color's periwinkle.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: I don't have any fuck, I don't know.
00:19:24
Speaker 2: It's between blue and purple and it's light.
00:19:27
Speaker 3: You said something between blue and purple. I still don't know what color periwinkle is by your description, Yeah, what color is it? If I look at it, it's I'm going to say, it's what.
00:19:38
Speaker 1: In between a blue and I'm not going to say light.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: You would probably say it's leaning more towards It's like in between a light blue and a lavender.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: What am I going to say? If I see it?
00:19:46
Speaker 2: That's blue?
00:19:47
Speaker 3: Okay? Thank you?
00:19:48
Speaker 4: Then okay, thank you?
00:19:50
Speaker 2: All right?
00:19:50
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one, illuminating? What color was that?
00:19:54
Speaker 3: It's just clear, just opaque.
00:19:57
Speaker 1: It's bright yellow, illuminating.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: And then torn t was ultimate gray, the very first color ever nineteen ninety nine cerulean.
00:20:06
Speaker 1: Was that a bright sky blue color?
00:20:09
Speaker 3: What was the one ultimate gray? I'm looking at it, boring gray?
00:20:15
Speaker 2: It was the ultimate gray, babe. So what do you make of pan Tone's response to all the backlash?
00:20:24
Speaker 3: It was well written. It was probably prepared ahead of time, is what it felt like. And it felt like they had they didn't react, they were ready, right, So it I think this was maybe an expectation. I again, I want, I get it, and I understand and having discussions, and I think all of that is healthy. I just hate sometimes it's always outraged. You talk about a color, and then you say there's controversy, and now there's race and a little like it's just everything. This is so fun. It should be just to talk about colors and there's controversy.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: That's the thing I was looking to write this. I thought, oh, this will be fun. We'll have a great time on this episode, because you know TJ always gets so annoyed and rolls his eyes when I start describing colors the way Pantone describes colors.
00:21:06
Speaker 1: This will be fun.
00:21:08
Speaker 2: And then I was really shocked to say, oh wow, okay, look at this.
00:21:12
Speaker 1: We've got a controversy.
00:21:13
Speaker 2: So twenty twenty six, everyone Pantone says, you'll be wearing cloud Dancer.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: But maybe in opposition, you'll go with Ebony.
00:21:21
Speaker 4: In opposition, what do they call black over Pantone?
00:21:23
Speaker 2: Anyway, that's why I went with Ebany. I tried to find some other way to call Midnight.
00:21:27
Speaker 3: I don't know, I wan'll be curious to look up and see what Pantone calls the color black look. Yes, I will be wearing a lot of white.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Cloud Dancer on right now. I'm looking at you.
00:21:37
Speaker 3: That's what you want to call it, all right, folks, Just it's just the color. At the end of the day, it's just the color. Wear it, don't wear it, like it, don't like it, but we we got other things to argue about. And with that, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. For my dear Cloud Dancer fiance and Rot, I am TJ.
00:21:57
Speaker 4: Holmes. We will talk for y'all. Sit the ten
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody.
00:00:03
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, December fourteenth, and we can tell you what you're going to be wearing next year. We can tell you what you're going to be decorating with next year. Yes, this is one of my favorite announcements of the year. It's Panton's Color of the Year. You know, I have been obsessed with colors. The names of colors infacted something we've laughed about over the years.
00:00:28
Speaker 3: This is ridiculous. A color of the year. Who gets to decide? No, this is something it's supposed to be fun, but it's new. I am one hundred percent learning that this was even a thing as of the past couple of weeks.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: I don't know why I have always been obsessed with this, but Pantone Color Institute has been choosing an annual color of the Year since nineteen ninety nine. And maybe it's just because I was used to this being a part of local news or the Newskicker. And maybe I'm because I'm a girl and I like design and I like to think about what the colored trends are. Maybe it's all of that, but I always get excited, not just because they tell us what color is going to be the a color, but how they go about doing it, how they describe it as.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Always a hoot. They take this very seriously.
00:01:12
Speaker 3: Who are they?
00:01:13
Speaker 4: By the way, what was Pantona? What do they do?
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Like?
00:01:16
Speaker 2: What is there there a color institute?
00:01:19
Speaker 3: Does that even mean like Crayola?
00:01:21
Speaker 2: Like they No, not like Crayola. I just know that they study colors. They have they name colors, people have paint colors, design colors.
00:01:31
Speaker 3: Is it a paint company.
00:01:32
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's a paint color. I just know that it's a color institute.
00:01:36
Speaker 3: Okay, So I didn't know there was this. I'm learning so much right now about this institute.
00:01:41
Speaker 2: But please continue. So do you have any guesses what this? Have you seen any headlines? Do you have any guesses about what the color of the year?
00:01:51
Speaker 3: I will never be able to guess because you all, I say you all, some of you don't seem to think that there are just eight colors, right, We're all taught this as children. We get the first box of Cryon, there's eight colors, and so everything I see it's not just green. It has to be kelly green or forest green or this kind of green, or it's always it's too much. Sometimes it's just green. And so I get it's annoying that every time I point to a color, you make up some Oh yeah, that's ruby, midnight moon.
00:02:21
Speaker 1: What No, I might say something like that's per simon.
00:02:27
Speaker 3: No, no, no.
00:02:29
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe I would say, like that that's color cinnamon, or that color is kelly green. Like I do distinguish among like the blues, like what blue is that?
00:02:38
Speaker 3: I don't ever say what blue is that. I go, Wow, that's blue, and you go, oh no, that's more of a summertime butterfly daytime.
00:02:47
Speaker 2: I've said cornflower blue and you've made fun of me about it.
00:02:49
Speaker 3: That makes sense, Just okay, it's just me. I find. Everybody's into their colors the thing I find. But it's just frustrating when I hear the names because every time it sounds like you just made up something.
00:02:58
Speaker 2: All right, So maybe I get it from Pantone. But anyway, this year's pick actually has proven to be controversial, which I can't recall a color being controversial before this year.
00:03:14
Speaker 4: It's where we are, it's everything.
00:03:15
Speaker 2: So now we've got a controversial color of the ear. Here is the color of the year, Cloud Dancer. Shut up your reaction, My love.
00:03:28
Speaker 3: What color is? Cloud is sound dancer, cloud dancer, Cloud Dancer, cloud Dancer. So is Cloud Dancer some kind of an electric blue?
00:03:39
Speaker 2: No, you'd like me to describe Pantone's description of what cloud Dancer is.
00:03:44
Speaker 4: Can't wait for this?
00:03:45
Speaker 1: You were gonna love this?
00:03:47
Speaker 2: A lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection. A billowy white imbued with serenity, Cloud Dancer in urages true relaxation and focus, allowing the mind to wander and creativity to breathe, making room for innovation. There's more. With its expansive presence, Cloud Dancer invites us space where function and feeling intertwine to build atmospheres of serenity and spaciousness, providing a refuge of visual cleanliness that inspires well being and lightness.
00:04:25
Speaker 4: White.
00:04:26
Speaker 3: So you just told me the color of the year is white, correct, and thus the controversy. And it's a special white. It's a white that's better than all the other colors out there. Look how wonderful that white sounds. This is the white we should all aspire to. This white? Is that what you just read.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: To me, I'm reading from Pantone, okay.
00:04:51
Speaker 3: And I hope everybody please don't folk it continues.
00:04:54
Speaker 4: It shouldn't.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: It does though, Okay, can I continue?
00:04:59
Speaker 3: Please let me hear more about The white.
00:05:01
Speaker 1: Interject is often as you like, I'm so okay with that.
00:05:04
Speaker 4: Does it say how it battles black?
00:05:06
Speaker 3: Is it really really good at taking on the opposite the black colors? Is what?
00:05:12
Speaker 1: It doesn't say that, But here's what it does say.
00:05:15
Speaker 2: Cloud Dancer reflects a universally shared experience. Whenever we are the world, we all look up to the clouds for inspiration and wonder.
00:05:26
Speaker 4: Wherever we are in the world.
00:05:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, In the simple act of looking up, we're connected by the drifting lightness of clouds. That universality is a huge part of why Cloud Dancer was selected as the Pantone Color of the Year twenty twenty six. So white unites. Cloud Dancer is a key structural color whose versatility provides scaffolding for the color spectrum, allowing all colors to shine. In a world where color has been synonymous with personal expression, this is a shade that can adapt, harmonize, and create contract, bringing a feeling of airy lightness to all product applications and environments, whether making a standalone statement or combined with other hues.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: Is there more?
00:06:14
Speaker 2: No, but I actually can talk. That was the gist of how they described the color and why.
00:06:19
Speaker 1: They chose it.
00:06:20
Speaker 4: Do you see the color there in front of uh?
00:06:22
Speaker 1: Yes, it is it. It's white.
00:06:24
Speaker 3: It's white.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: It's white.
00:06:25
Speaker 3: Okay. A couple of questions here when they do this every year, are they creating a new color or this is something that's just been out there that they're highlighting.
00:06:34
Speaker 2: It's a color that they have in their spectrum that they highlight. So they have named all of these colors. And by the way, anyone who look, if you have ever looked to paint a white wall, I just because I love color and I love painting, and you know all of that. So if you go look up white, there are I don't even know, hundreds of shades of white.
00:06:51
Speaker 1: So this is a particular shade they chose it.
00:06:54
Speaker 2: Only you can only probably tell what color it is when you put it next to another color.
00:06:58
Speaker 4: It's a light work white.
00:07:00
Speaker 3: This is this is the best way, so you're gonna get this is the one.
00:07:06
Speaker 4: This is a good way.
00:07:07
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:07:08
Speaker 2: I don't even have to get into why the controversy, because it's fairly obvious, is it.
00:07:12
Speaker 3: Okay, can you do something for me? Give me the first that when you did the description, the very first line that the first part you open.
00:07:19
Speaker 2: With cloud Dancer a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection. Next line, the next line is a billowy white imbued with serenity. Cloud Dancer encourages true relaxation and focus, allowing the mind to wander and creativity to breathe, making room for innovation.
00:07:48
Speaker 4: Okay, what was the line about us all looking up no matter where.
00:07:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's when they talk about the clouds. Yes, cloud Dancer reflects a universally shared experience. Wherever we are in the world, we all look up to the clouds for inspiration and wonder.
00:08:03
Speaker 4: Okay, so what's the controversy.
00:08:06
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's two people online have blasted the shade for being bleak and boring and possibly not a color at all.
00:08:14
Speaker 3: Okay, so there we go. That's just what you expect. No matter what col you pick, someone gonna say, oh, why did you pick that one? Oh, that's a silly one. I don't like that one. You shouldn't gone, right, that's that basic one.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: That's absolutely every year there's someone who like.
00:08:24
Speaker 3: Come on, that's not controversial, right, not that much.
00:08:27
Speaker 2: That's okay, Well, I'll give you all that. There are lots of funny reacts online. Others have denounced Cloud Dancer as tone deaf and whitewashing, expressing other controversial takes, especially with DEI policies this year, with the way we've seen everything be anti woke, They're like, all the years to choose the color white, this year was probably not the best one to do.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: So okay, I don't know what did they use particular, what their standard is when they pick thee Do they just pick them out of a hat?
00:08:56
Speaker 4: Is it random?
00:08:57
Speaker 2: Is it there's a word and they vote And they actually have responded specifically to the controversy.
00:09:02
Speaker 4: There's a board, Yes, how many on the board?
00:09:05
Speaker 2: There's a global team. I don't know how many people are on the global team. Oh yeah, every year that make this decision. It's a big deal. They start working on the next year's color January second, they said, so this is a big deal.
00:09:18
Speaker 1: You'll appreciate this.
00:09:19
Speaker 2: After hearing the description of the color read during today's The Today Show, Al Roker said, otherwise known as white. So it's very much been like Al Rokers. That's the actually only person we have, like on television who is announcing this making a little snide comment, but the other So here's some other examples of reaction online. Your choice is about as inspired as mayonnaise. Someone else said, pantone deaf. Someone says it's giving unseasoned chicken. And then here is another one. It seems as if this selection and the content created around it was conceived in a vacuum completely removed from our collectives, social, and political present. I'd hope a brand as that has this much cultural impact wouldn't operate with such a glaring blind spot.
00:10:08
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, maybe I don't know it. I have a should they just go about their work and not think about, or worry about, or try to react to anything going on out there. You can make an argument that that's the way we should be going about this. We shouldn't just react to everything going on. We're going to do our work the same and it's not going to change. That's one argument. I'm not on board with that one. I don't like that. If you just say, well, we're just doing our thing. Huh, I wish I appreciate and what you're explaining to me how big of a deal this is every year? Then you this is a missed opportunity. This was a tone deaf thing, and I don't think it's going too far right. If they would have picked something else, there would have been no controversy about why didn't you pick white? This was a good year. Nobody's gonna say that, of course not. But in doing so, you know where we all are, and you know what we're doing. This company's Is this an American US based company? I mean consider that as well. Maybe it's a company that's a base somewhere else and they don't give a damn about whatever politics might be going on and whatever strife we have internally in our own country. Maybe that's it. So I don't know, it's those things need to be taken into consideration, but I can understand why. And my reaction is the same as well, ropes.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: What the actual health Yeah, And by the way, people who were upset by this choice pointed out to other major tone deaf ads like the Sydney Sweeney ad, you know they have American Eagle. They've talked about like that, We've been here, done that, We've seen this year create problems when we start making references and not recognizing how they can be received by everyone, not just a certain targeted And to say that this company that understands its global reach, that understands its social impact, and the fact that yes, people look forward to is that they had to consider what that reaction would be if they chose a white hue. And by the way, this is the first time this company has ever chosen a white hue.
00:12:07
Speaker 3: Great timing. Just go ahead and get it out, get it out there. So so we go back to what was their color in twenty twenty, was that black?
00:12:14
Speaker 2: I was going to go over that.
00:12:15
Speaker 1: Actually, funny enough, it was ultimate gray.
00:12:18
Speaker 4: In twenty twenty, Ultimate gray.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: That was twenty twenty.
00:12:22
Speaker 3: You know why I went to that year? That was George Floyd, that that was a racial reckoning year. I don't know how tone, I don't know what they're doing. It's bizarre. It's a bizarre and it's boring. I mean, it's white. Okay, you can describe white as great as you want to and call it a cloudy and dancing and.
00:12:38
Speaker 2: Billowie and yes, all right, so when we come back, we are going to give the official response from Pantone Color Institute about all this backlash because they are very aware of it.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: And yes, we'll go over some of the other colors of the.
00:12:52
Speaker 2: Year just because TJ loves hearing all of those descriptions. Welcome back everyone. We continue to talk about pantones color of the Year, Cloud Dancer. They thought it was billowy and light and unifying, and turns out lots of people have different thoughts on this year's choice.
00:13:21
Speaker 3: This is where we are. I mean, even a color is controversial. Is that we argue about everything. If you open a podcasts and saying it's Sunday, somebody will be pissed. And I said, well not in my country. It's timeline. That shouldn't They like, we got mad. Our first reaction, our only reaction is outrage to everything. That is our emotional reaction.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: And we all see things and receive things through the lens in which our experience take us and that's just the way human beings are.
00:13:51
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, but when a company like this doesn't seem to take into consideration everyone and then they give us on line that makes it sound as if this was an unbra I don't know, maybe this was a very I want to say, sincere effort.
00:14:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:14:04
Speaker 3: I don't want to take anything away from them, but I can understand and my hearing you read it. I'm sitting across the table from you reading about the cloud dancer that's white, and it's this wonderful it's the best of all hues, and this is going to bring us all together and it allows other colors. I know people like their other colors, but this white is the one that makes it all possible for you other colors.
00:14:27
Speaker 2: God, yeah, they did not think this through, you know, And that's just that speaks to why you want We don't know. I don't know who's on this global team, but clearly when you have diversity, other people's lenses are suddenly recognized and seen through.
00:14:43
Speaker 1: And then you're like, ooh, I can see how that might be taken ouch.
00:14:46
Speaker 3: So please diversity with authority. You can't just put one black woman in the corner. Here's a Hispanic man in this other corner. They're in the room fighting fifteen other people that don't look like them, trying to convince them that hey, about this color. I just want y'all to know. I mean, it's tough. You have to give them the authority to say, hey, y'all, this is not maybe worth the risk.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: All right. I'm curious to get your response to their response.
00:15:16
Speaker 3: All right, here was good?
00:15:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, here was their official response. I want to hear what in it's long?
00:15:21
Speaker 3: Am I going to like this?
00:15:23
Speaker 2: I don't know, I really don't know. The global team at the Pantone Color Institute selected this color for its emotional and creative resonance, not as a statement on politics, ideology, or race. Pantone does not assign political narratives to color to select or avoid a hue on that basis would give such narratives a significance they do not hold in this process. We understand that people bring different feelings to its meaning. Color shifts depending on context and perspective. Cloud Dancer is a color about relaxation, reflection, and creativity. The Pantone Color of the Year selection process is rooted in an understanding of humanity, drawing on close observation and global trend analysis to recognize what is emerging across the design landscape. It considers the moods a color can evoke and the experiences it can shape in design.
00:16:19
Speaker 3: End quote, how do they select these colors?
00:16:22
Speaker 2: It's a global panel and they go through it. They are recognized globally as a leading source of color expertise, and so they provide color insights and solutions, collaborating with our clients to strategically address color challenges and develop a color and design approach consistent with brand vision.
00:16:42
Speaker 4: Is it a coincidence?
00:16:43
Speaker 3: I'm saying it's possible that they use some process in which they I don't know, they see what colors are trending out there in the art world or whatever they may do, and put them all together and say, oh, this is the one that's now clearly yes, that's it.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: That is what they do. They study trus they study where a design is headed, and they consult with companies to pick the right colors for their products that will be attractive to people where we are in society. So they're really getting ahead of where they think trends are and where they're headed.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: So with that argument, then this might be just a coincidence that this process did its thing like it always does, they say, and this just happened to be what came out at this time. You also, I could make an argument Robes that maybe they knew what exactly what they were doing, because I ain't ever heard of Pantone until this year and their color of the year. Oh really, So people are discussing this thing out and I know a lot of people might hear that and say, well, how do you not know? DJ? And you clearly say this has been a big thing every year. Yeah, but I don't know, have sales been lagging? Has their name not been talked about enough? Did anyone over there suggest, you know what, this will get people talking about us and we have some cover, we be able to cover our butts and we'll be in the news cycle.
00:17:51
Speaker 2: Maybe, Well, they're always looking, you know, and this is they plan it out at the end of the year. People look forward to it, you know. I think maybe it's funny. I think just being in the Good Warning America, we covered this every year. But I think maybe I always ended up with the story. So that's why I used to look forward to Pretty sure I didn't do it. I'm pretty sure you were and I did a lot of ridiculous stuff.
00:18:09
Speaker 1: But some of these so last year I remember you were traveling.
00:18:13
Speaker 2: Is I think the only time I did Morning Run solo what you were and Sabine were going to the Jingle Ball in Los Angeles. And that is when twenty twenty five Color of the Year came out and it was Mocha Moose, So that was this year?
00:18:26
Speaker 3: Is that?
00:18:27
Speaker 4: Wait? Is a brownish something of them?
00:18:29
Speaker 1: Did you see that Mocha Moose? A lot?
00:18:31
Speaker 2: Like when you think about design trends and what people are wearing brown.
00:18:36
Speaker 4: I see brown every year.
00:18:37
Speaker 3: Yes, all right.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty four is Color of the Year. Peach fuzz?
00:18:42
Speaker 4: Is it peach color? Yeah?
00:18:45
Speaker 2: Like a light orange?
00:18:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, peach fuzz, peach fuzz.
00:18:48
Speaker 4: Okay, you go.
00:18:50
Speaker 2: I got all the way through twenty twenty I could keep going. Twenty twenty threes Viva magenta. Purple, well, not really purple. It's in between purple and and it's a bright one.
00:19:02
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two very peary.
00:19:05
Speaker 4: Don't even know where is that green?
00:19:06
Speaker 2: That's an intense periwinkle. Stop, do you know what periwinkle is?
00:19:10
Speaker 3: You say it pear, And I think I thought the green pear like a pear.
00:19:14
Speaker 2: Very pary, That makes sense, but it is p e r. I so very periwinkle. What color's periwinkle.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: I don't have any fuck, I don't know.
00:19:24
Speaker 2: It's between blue and purple and it's light.
00:19:27
Speaker 3: You said something between blue and purple. I still don't know what color periwinkle is by your description, Yeah, what color is it? If I look at it, it's I'm going to say, it's what.
00:19:38
Speaker 1: In between a blue and I'm not going to say light.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: You would probably say it's leaning more towards It's like in between a light blue and a lavender.
00:19:44
Speaker 3: What am I going to say? If I see it?
00:19:46
Speaker 2: That's blue?
00:19:47
Speaker 3: Okay? Thank you?
00:19:48
Speaker 4: Then okay, thank you?
00:19:50
Speaker 2: All right?
00:19:50
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one, illuminating? What color was that?
00:19:54
Speaker 3: It's just clear, just opaque.
00:19:57
Speaker 1: It's bright yellow, illuminating.
00:19:59
Speaker 2: And then torn t was ultimate gray, the very first color ever nineteen ninety nine cerulean.
00:20:06
Speaker 1: Was that a bright sky blue color?
00:20:09
Speaker 3: What was the one ultimate gray? I'm looking at it, boring gray?
00:20:15
Speaker 2: It was the ultimate gray, babe. So what do you make of pan Tone's response to all the backlash?
00:20:24
Speaker 3: It was well written. It was probably prepared ahead of time, is what it felt like. And it felt like they had they didn't react, they were ready, right, So it I think this was maybe an expectation. I again, I want, I get it, and I understand and having discussions, and I think all of that is healthy. I just hate sometimes it's always outraged. You talk about a color, and then you say there's controversy, and now there's race and a little like it's just everything. This is so fun. It should be just to talk about colors and there's controversy.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: That's the thing I was looking to write this. I thought, oh, this will be fun. We'll have a great time on this episode, because you know TJ always gets so annoyed and rolls his eyes when I start describing colors the way Pantone describes colors.
00:21:06
Speaker 1: This will be fun.
00:21:08
Speaker 2: And then I was really shocked to say, oh wow, okay, look at this.
00:21:12
Speaker 1: We've got a controversy.
00:21:13
Speaker 2: So twenty twenty six, everyone Pantone says, you'll be wearing cloud Dancer.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: But maybe in opposition, you'll go with Ebony.
00:21:21
Speaker 4: In opposition, what do they call black over Pantone?
00:21:23
Speaker 2: Anyway, that's why I went with Ebany. I tried to find some other way to call Midnight.
00:21:27
Speaker 3: I don't know, I wan'll be curious to look up and see what Pantone calls the color black look. Yes, I will be wearing a lot of white.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Cloud Dancer on right now. I'm looking at you.
00:21:37
Speaker 3: That's what you want to call it, all right, folks, Just it's just the color. At the end of the day, it's just the color. Wear it, don't wear it, like it, don't like it, but we we got other things to argue about. And with that, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. For my dear Cloud Dancer fiance and Rot, I am TJ.
00:21:57
Speaker 4: Holmes. We will talk for y'all. Sit the ten