The Lies They Tell Us

January 25, 2010

A reporter called. She was on deadline, doing a piece on aging. She thought there might be a colour angle. We talked awhile.

Then, She: “OK, but there must be some colour everyone can wear”.

Me: “No. Maybe neutral champagne beige. “

Her: “I know you’re trying to sell this and everything, but is there anything you can say that would apply to everyone? For instance, I look good in grey. Can everyone look good in grey?”

Me: “I’m not trying to sell anything. I don’t have to. Everyone can wear some shade of grey. But, no, I cannot come up with a colour Reese and Keira and both wear well.”

Her: “ Ok, what about turquoise? That’s new this spring. They say everyone can wear it.”

Me: “Some shade of turquoise can be worn by most palettes, but not the same shade. Some shade of most colours can be worn by most palettes, but not the same shade.”

Her, getting testy: “So, there’s nothing you could tell me that could apply to everyone? Does black make you look thin, as they say?”

Me: “No, it makes light people look 10lbs heavier on the bottom half. Care to know why that is?”

Me: “Not only do the colours vary in each of the 12 Seasons, so does the way they are worn. But here’s a rule that always applies : in big blocks, in prints, in footwear, find colours that are the same as your hair, not going darker than the darkest tones in the hair.”

And there it ended.

How many times has a relative called, wondering if you died in the recent tornado she heard about on TV, and you’re thinking “What tornado?”

I’m running out of respect for media, or at least the story-gathering division. I watch no TV, except the occasional 60 Minutes if Katie Couric is not on. Her stricken-faced “Have you ever wondered what could have been?” questions force the reactionary response, which somehow overrides critical thinking. Sure, Katie, we all wonder that all the time, lost limbs or not.

They don’t tell the approximate truth. They tell the grim stuff out of all proportion to the good news. They are ONLY interested in the sensation. In an increasingly sensational world, we are left drained and exhausted.

I’m not media-trained. Maybe one gets used to handling this interrogation style. Me being me, I was irritable. I felt uncomfortable being pushed into a corner to say something I didn’t want to say. I’m not saying she would have lied to her readers…but she would have been quite OK with me lying to her readers. Allowing me to compromise my integrity was a better solution than saying “Why? Why are you saying that the conventional beliefs are wrong?”

The answer is always the same. The marketers would tell you anything to sell you stuff. They do not care if the item sits in your closet unworn for 10 years. The store brought it in and they want it out the door ASAP. It’s our job to learn the truth before we buy, not theirs to offer it.

Is the fashion industry really going to come out with 12, or even 6, shades of turquoise? Or are they going to tell you that everyone can wear the colour in the jumbo bolt of cloth they got with the volume purchase discount? or goddess forbid, is the cosmetics industry going to dream up how to tell us turquoise eyeliner is elegant? Telling you the truth makes their life much harder. They know most consumers will buy the lie and they will never be held accountable, because the next snow job is waiting in the wings to distract us.

For the reporter, the deadline came first. She should maybe have gotten an earlier start.

At 12B, one of my meta-colour excursions, wondering if your clothes can make you (and others) feel greenish about the gills?

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis

Comments

4 Responses to “The Lies They Tell Us”

Glenda on January 25th, 2010 5:19 pm

Hi, Christine;
thanks for standing firm with the truth! We have enough ~ no, way too many ~ of those lies out there already! You & Paula Begoun: keep up the good work!!
Glenda
Kristina on January 26th, 2010 8:45 am

Christine,
We must have started a transatlantic thought connection of some kind! I was telling DH exactly this the other day. I get so fed up with all the catastrophes we’re served 24 hours a day in the media. I feel it gets to me sometimes when I’m tired and over-worked. I start feeling a slight panic, thinking: “Do I dare let my kids walk to school unaccompanied, with all the abductions and rapes and murders going on? And what if swine flu finally hits us big time and we all die? Should I really take the car, considering all the accidents that I read about every single day? And what if the storm comes?”
I realize there’s a need to report the bad stuff. We need to know what’s going on so that we can be aware. Still, are there no more happy stories out there? No more good deeds being done? I for one feel I lose hope at times, and I hate that feeling. Without hope we have nothing, nothing at all.
Also, good for you that you stood your ground! I wonder sometimes if reporters are truly interested in finding the truth, or if they’re only interested in telling a story from their own angle. What’s objective these days? It’s like if the story doesn’t sell, it doesn’t exist.
On another note: thanks for the article on 12 Blueprints about color being able to make us nauseous. That’s exactly what I meant in my comment under “Letting things be easy” when the consultant put me in deep, heavy colors. It was like being pregnant all over again. I thought I was the only one who felt colors this way (I get a headache from looking at icy turquoise too) and it was really uplifting to read that this is quite a common phenomenon. Thank you for that!
Mary STeele Lawler on January 26th, 2010 10:31 am

My theory is that there are more newspeople out there than actual news.
Christine Scaman on January 26th, 2010 7:44 pm

Great comments – I enjoyed “pregnancy all over again”, and “more newspeople than news” . Both most accurate.

Glenda, I haven’t seen the final article. The paper is from another city. I have no idea what she said, in the end. Almost frightening to think.