Marketing Blunders – Crayola

Crayola, one of the world leading brand for crayons has changed color names over time due to the civil rights movement and other social and political pressures:

• 1958 “Prussian blue” was renamed “midnight blue” as teachers prompted that children could not longer relate to Prussian history.

• 1962 the company renamed the “flesh” coloured crayson “peach”, to recognise that not everyone’s skin colour is the same.

• 1999 the colour “Indian red” was changed to “chestnut”, although the colour was named after a special pigment that came from India, school children often incorrectly assumed it was associated with Native Americans.