It's Not THAT Bad: Australian Study Determines 'Ugliest Color in the World'

Before we begin, we'd like to take a moment to apologize to a neighbor of ours:

Dear Margie,

We're sorry. Despite what we previously screamed at you from the window of our kitchen, that horrible yellowish color you painted your new porch is not the "ugliest color in the world."

This is:

A group of researchers in Australia has recently determined that Pantone 448C — a brownish greenish monstrosity also known as "opaque couché" — is the world's ugliest color, with research participants "commonly" describing the color as "tar" and "death" (and even "sewage-tinged," in at least one instance).

But lest you think these researchers were merely trying to induce nausea in a group of innocent Australians, know this: The agency that carried out the study was hired by the Australian government to find the most unattractive shade to slather on cigarette packaging.

"We didn’t want to create attractive, aspirational packaging," explains Victoria Parr, the leader of the research team. "Instead, our role was to help our client reduce demand, with the ultimate aim to minimize use of the product.’’

According to Time, the governments of the U.K., Ireland and France will soon adopt the same practice — and the very same color — in a similar attempt to discourage smoking.

Here's hoping our neighbor Margie doesn't paint her porch with it.