Millennium's Blue's Cues

With less than 500 days left until 2000, companies worldwide are fine-tuning their marketing strategies and adopting postures for the next millennium.

Blatant efforts include renaming or adding such words as "the millennium" or "the future" to taglines. Clocks that tick backward to the zero hour have been incorporated into promotional and retail tchotchkes, from paperweights to T-shirts. One company has even gone so far as to trademark the term "Y2K" and license out "the Millennium Bug," a cute little character representing that not-so-cute little computer glitch.

Becoming more common is a far more subtle approach: associating a color with the third millennium, said Young & Rubicam futurist Marian Salzman in the agency's weekly trendletter Future Dialogue. Though there is debate over what color consumers will most identify with the year 2000 and beyond, Salzman's research handicaps blue as the clear frontrunner.

Depending on the shade, marketers who have embraced blue (see below) recognize that the color can evoke feelings as peaceful as a summer sky, as entrancing as the ocean or as futuristic as metallic sparkle, she said. Premillennial consumers are particularly drawn to cool, calm hues. "When people made the transition from the I 800s to I 900s, the records show there was apprehension as well as excitement," said Leatrice Eiseman, a color psychologist for the Pantone Color Institute. In times like those, people will select blue and other cool colors like blue-green and purple, which invoke sensations of calmness, relaxation and well-being."

Be afraid, be very afraid of something (make that someone?) we saw advertised in High Street Emporium, that catalog found in the seat pockets of airlines. For the gal who has everything there's now Safe-T-Man, a security device billed as a life-size, simulated male. And evildoers have good reason to be scared. Constructed from "the highest quality inflatable PVC vinyl," Safe-T-Man comes equipped with features that make him a suitable visual deterrent. He appears to be about 6 feet tall, 180 lbs. and graced with airbrushed facial highlights that give off a creepy George Michael/Don Johnson stubble vibe.

Once inflated and "dressed according to your personal style," as the catalog's copy suggests, the plastic "bodyguard" can be propped up in front of the window of one's home or in the passenger seat of the car to scare off prospective burglars and carjackers (but will more likely be purchased by solitary commuters hoping to beef up the body count to "cheat" the carpool lane). Accessories sold separately: zippered nylon carrying tote ($24.95) and easy dual-action inflator pump ($9.95) for inconspicuous transport, but unlike the real thing, Safe-T-Man comes with his own repair patch.

BRANDS THAT SLING THE BLUES

Although color experts might differ on precisely which shade of blue is the true "millennial color," one thing is for certain: More and more, blue will be coming to a retail outlet near you, says Young & Rubicam. Among the evidence:

* Apple has chosen a sea-green turquoise shade, dubbed "Bondi blue" by the company, for the new iMac computer and the formerly rainbow-hued apple logo.

* Motorola has introduced a blue E-Luma-Glow display and "Blue Streak" pagers for teens.

* When more than 10 million consumers voted on the new color for M&M's (the "official candy of the new millennium"), blue won handily over both pink and purple.

* Kraft's berryblue Jell-O, introduced in 1992, is now second only to strawberry-red in sales.

* Nabisco's sky-blue Oreos outsold classic Oreos during last spring's limited run.

* Ice blue has become an important color for brides. It's also a hot makeup color. Bioelements has even introduced a cooling blue ultraviolet lipstick. Soap-Cosmetics Chemicals Specialties reports that "hues of the earth and sea will be taking center stage this season."

* Pepsi has made its packaging markedly more blue this year in celebration of both its Blue Centennial (1998) and the coming millennium.

* Even American Express is getting in on the act by introducing a Blue Card.

COPYRIGHT 1998 BPI Communications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group