Pantone Ugly Bright Yellow

This afternoon, I was dropping my daughter and her friends off at the movies, when the three girls struck up an interesting conversation. Across the street from the theater, there's a Planet Fitness building. I don't know if you've ever seen one of these gyms, but the whole exterior of the building is--no joke--bright yellow. Really, really bright.

The girls attacked immediately: "That is the ugliest color ever." "Eew. The colors don't even match. Who uses that bright yellow with that color purple?" "Why on earth would you paint your building that color?"

And thus begins our lesson today in branding. While I'm not advocating that color (It's pretty atrocious, but you can't miss it!), Planet Fitness gets an A for effort with the idea of setting themselves apart from the competition. Right down the street from the Fairfield Planet Fitness is a Fitness Edge. Fitness Edge has their standard sign outside, and they're located in a plain brick building. Nothing fancy, nothing to set themselves apart. It's just a way of making themselves stand out as a gym, making themselves more memorable, I explained. You see that color yellow, and you begin to associate it with the gym.

Of course, being preteens, they didn't quite get it. "It's still ugly," they collectively said.

Noone's saying it's pretty, I started... then I realized what I was doing. To me, I was trying to teach them a little lesson about marketing and branding. To them, I was defending what I believe was Pantone Ugly Bright Yellow.

Never mind, girls, never mind.