The Commoditization of Color

💰 The Business of Meaning

Once color was no longer bound by nature, marketing stepped in.

By the 1940s and ’50s, retailers saw an opportunity: if colors were strictly gendered, parents would buy more. Clothes, toys, baby gear—everything could be sold twice. The market had spoken, and color became a tool of social conditioning.

Someone, somewhere, made these decisions.

🚀 What other “obvious” meanings around you might not be as natural as they seem?

💡 “There are no such things as boy colors and girl colors! Or toys. Or jobs. Or clothes. Or anything else.” - Purple is for boys