What’s your favourite colour? How many times have you been asked that question? Learning about colours would probably rank as one of the first things we learn as children. And we use colour so much, we don’t even know we are. Whether we know it or not, colour is an important part of our lives. Companies also know this and take advantage of the subconscious benefits it can provide. It wasn’t that long ago that a major confectionary company actually tried to copyright a shade of purple as its own.
So we know companies place great emphasis on colour and its importance to corporate identity. Back in the 60s and 70s, big companies cared so much, they had the likes of Ford and Holden produce extremely limited numbers of vehicles painted in what could only be described as their ‘corporate colours’.
Shell Oil, one of the biggest companies in the world, is easily identified by its yellow and red colour scheme. It had two XW GT-HO Phase2 Falcons painted in what is now known as ‘Shell Yellow’.
Gallaher, a major U.K based multinational tobacco company wanted its then corporate logo colours, silver with red stripes, to adorn 8 Ford Falcon XR GTs in ‘Gallaher Silver’.
Companies a little closer to home also started to get in on the act. Brambles, then only a transport and logistics company had its trucks painted in a unique shade of red. Que Ford with its four ‘Brambles Red’ XY GTs.
And Waltons, a large department chain store founded in the 1950s, had a distinctive blue as part of its corporate identity. Here’s where Holden enters the fray with its ‘Waltons Blue’ Torana.
And there’s many more examples of corporate colours infiltrating car manufacturer’s colour choices. From ‘Agfa Orange’, ‘Fanta Orange’ and ‘Ansett Blue’ to ‘Royal Automobile Association Yellow’ and ‘C.U.B Brown’. Chances are that if you were a company back in the 60s and 70s with a distinctive corporate colour, a Ford or Holden was driving around the country proudly displaying it for you.
