--- title: World's Ugliest Color Is Being Used To Discourage Smoking description: The world's ugliest color (otherwise known as Pantone 448 C or opaque couché) is being used on tobacco products to discourage smoking. canonical: https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-01T18:56:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:25:56.309Z og:title: The World's Ugliest Color Is Being Used for an Amazing Purpose og:description: Meet Pantone 448 C og:url: https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe1b7e6f46b219b1/698895d30a4a2203449c9e5d/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Computer Arts Products Shoot og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The World's Ugliest Color Is Being Used for an Amazing Purpose twitter:description: Meet Pantone 448 C twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe1b7e6f46b219b1/698895d30a4a2203449c9e5d/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is The World's Ugliest Color — And It Has An Important Job > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=390bc86f-ac11-4e30-bdf6-eebe3465d2ec&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: World's Ugliest Color [Watch (HLS stream): World's Ugliest Color](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oJmpIYSM.m3u8) (0:43)  _Published 2016-06-02. The world’s ugliest color has been described as “death,” “dirty” and “tar,” but this odious hue is serving an important purpose: discouraging smoking._  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jun 1, 2016 6:56 PM UTC The world’s ugliest color has been described as “death,” “dirty” and “tar,” but this odious hue is serving an important purpose: discouraging smoking.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jun 1, 2016 6:56 PM UTC The [world’s ugliest color](http://time.com/4134544/pantone-color-of-the-year-serenity-rose-quartz/) has been described as “death,” “dirty” and “tar,” but this odious hue is serving an important purpose: [discouraging smoking](http://time.com/4257561/how-to-quit-smoking-best/). [Pantone 448 C](http://www.pantone.com/color-finder/448-C), a “drab, dark brown” also called “opaque couché,” was specifically selected after three months and multiple studies by research agency GfK. The [agency was hired by the Australian government](http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/does-this-colour-turn-you-off-20120816-24bf4.html) to find a color that was so repugnant that if it was on tobacco products, it would dissuade people from smoking.  A man smokes a cigarette on September 25, 2014 in Paris, holding a sample of a "plain cigarette packaging" cigarette box (THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images) THOMAS SAMSON—AFP/Getty Images The new color was adopted for all tobacco packaging along with graphic health warnings. Now, other governments are following suit. The United Kingdom, Ireland and France have all passed “plain packaging” laws as well, using mockups using the same murky color. Ugly never looked so good. **_Gifts_**_:_ [**_The 100 Most Influential Images of All Time_**](http://shop.time.com/storefront/subscribe-to-time/link/1039114.html?xid=cm-TIMEShopscTIMEArticle) ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/"},"headline":"This Is The World's Ugliest Color — And It Has An Important Job","datePublished":"2016-06-01T18:56:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-06T09:25:56.309Z","description":"Meet Pantone 448 C","url":"https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe1b7e6f46b219b1/698895d30a4a2203449c9e5d/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe1b7e6f46b219b1/698895d30a4a2203449c9e5d/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Computer Arts Products Shoot","caption":"Computer Arts Products Shoot","creditText":"Computer Arts Magazine—Computer Arts Magazine","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/","name":"This Is The World's Ugliest Color — And It Has An Important Job"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"World's Ugliest Color","description":"The world’s ugliest color has been described as “death,” “dirty” and “tar,” but this odious hue is serving an important purpose: discouraging smoking.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oJmpIYSM/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-06-02T16:27:46.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oJmpIYSM.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/","duration":"PT43S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4353765/worlds-ugliest-color-discourages-smoking/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```