Pre-Reading Activities

A: Tell someone else

Tell someone else which color or colors you associate with the feelings below:

• feeling excited
• feeling angry
• feeling energetic
• feeling depressed
• feeling peaceful
• feeling nervous

B: Short discussion

Answer the questions below and compare your answers with other students. Work out what the results are for your group or class.

1. What is your favorite color? What things do you have that are that color?
2. The 1960s are remembered in some countries as a decade of youth movements and social change, and the 1980s as a decade of financial excess and the end of the Cold War. What do you think the 1990s will be remembered for?
3. What do you think will be important in the first decade of the new millennium?

C: Vocabulary

To help you understand today's article, read the following list of words and their meanings.

• introspection: thinking about your own thoughts and feelings
• the Millennium: the year 2000 (a millennium = a period of a thousand years)
• associate with: link two things in your mind (e.g. red = danger)
• to poll: to ask people for their opinion in a survey
• a consumer: a person who buys goods
• colleagues: people working with you, or in the same profession
• the mood of a group: the way a group feels

 

Reading Activities

A: Scanning

Read the questions below and then look for the answers in the article. Try to find the answers as quickly as you can without reading every word of the article, and write the answers next to the questions.

1. What is blue the color of?
   
   Suggested answer Introspection, open space, the future (students could also answer sky,
   
   
2. What is green the color of?
   
   Suggested answer Environmental friendliness
   
   
3. Who did Young and Rubicam poll?
   
   Suggested answer Colleagues in 41 countries
   
   
4. Which cola company changed the color of its cans?
   
   Suggested answer Pepsi
   
   
5. Which credit card company has chosen the color blue for its new card?
   
   Suggested answer American Express
   
   
6. Which color does Doug Smith think is always in fashion?
   
   Suggested answer Blue
   
   

The Future Is Here And It Looks Blue... By Hester Abrams LONDON November 17 (Reuters) - Blue jeans, blue computers, blue cola cans, blue pills. Blue -- the color of introspection, open space and the future -- will soon be everywhere, even in your wallet, as marketers latch onto a mood for the Millennium. Green has been the decades-old metaphor for environmental friendliness in companies like the Body Shop. But new research suggests that in the 2000s marketing thinking will adopt blue to symbolize an integrated, rewarding experience from brands. ``Though there is some debate over what color or colors consumers will most associate with the year 2000 and beyond, our research shows that the clear front-runner is blue,'' the Brand Futures group at advertising agency Young & Rubicam forecasts. The agency said it polled colleagues in 41 countries about the connection between colors and the Millennium and found those who mentioned blue consistently associated it with sky and water, a sense of limitlessness and peace. Color theorists are often involved in marketing decisions where shades and tones are essential to corporate image, packaging and product design. A mood registered in market research can be captured by a color choice in a finished product or advertising to promote a subconscious connection of feelings with a brand. Young & Rubicam's research started with an observation that, in the United States, wearing jeans to the office Fridays is regarded as normal. The agency's trend analyst Marian Salzman calls blue jeans archetypal Millennium wear. She cited a raft of manufacturers hooking up to a blue bandwagon -- from PepsiCo rebranding its red cola cans blue to ice-blue makeup to Apple's new blue iMac computer. When American Express recently launched a new charge card, it chose the name ``blue'' to distinguish it from the well-known green card and to tie in with the company's blue box logo. ``Blue is always in fashion. It's cool in terms of color and hipness,'' said American Express spokesman Doug Smith. It speaks to people aged 25-35, he said, ``who work to live rather than live to work''. Copyright © 1998 Reuters Limited.

B: Vocabulary

The following words are also used in the article. Read the article and underline the words. Then work with a partner and match the words with their meanings. One of you should do Word List A, the other, Word List B. Then when you have finished, share your answers:

Word List A (Business words)
Match each word on the left with its meaning on the right.

to promote registered (in a poll) to forecast a symbol rebranding a logo

A. to change the look or style of a product or service B. to say what is expected to happen C. to give publicity to/support for D. recorded E. something that refers to or suggests something else F. a printed symbol used by a company

Suggested answer 1.C.- 2. D.-3. B.- 4.E.- 5.A. -6. F.

Word List B
Match each word on the left with its meaning on the right.

to adopt a bandwagon shades integrated subconscious archetypal to distinguish hip

A. to take over something as your own B. different kinds of one color (e.g. dark & light green) C. the parts are all closely linked D. thoughts and feelings that you are not fully aware of E. a very typical example F. to show the difference between G. up-to-date and very fashionable H. a popular or fashionable activity

Suggested answer 1. A. - 2. H. -3. B. - 4. C. - 5. D.- 6. E. -7. F. - 8. G.

C: Finding Important Ideas

Here are eight sentences which summarize different ideas from the article. Only four of them contain important ideas from the article. The other ideas are in the article but they are not as important. Read them and choose the four most important ideas.

1. Green is the color people associate with the environment.

2. Blue is the color people associate with peace, open space and the future.

3. It is normal to wear jeans to the office on Fridays in the United States.

4. Young & Rubicam is an advertising agency.

5. Blue is likely to be very popular for the year 2000.

6. Companies are choosing the color blue for their new products.

7. Marketers believe people associate certain feelings with certain colors.

8. Apple has a new blue computer.
Suggested answer 2- 5 - 6 - 7

D: Thinking Carefully

Read these sentences and answer the questions below. They encourage you to think more carefully about two sentences from the article.

1. "Blue -- the color of introspection, open space and the future -- will soon be everywhere, even in your wallet...."
   What are the words in bold referring to in the article?
   
   Suggested answer This introduces an idea explored later in the article: American Express's new blue credit card.
   
   
2. "She cited a raft of manufacturers hooking up to a blue bandwagon...."
   What do the words in bold mean?
   
   Suggested answer Companies are copying the idea of using blue for products because it is believed to be the new fashionable color. (The sentence suggests a picture of companies "joining up to" an existing and popular idea.)