Party colours shout loud to be seen

● For political parties vying for voters’ attention, colour may speak louder than words. The colours of their logos, that is.

Commercial product brands have long used the psychology behind colours on their labels to attract buyers to their products, and experts say the same is true for political parties.

And the host of smaller new parties are shouting loud to be seen.

The ballot paper for the elections in two weeks’ time will resemble a virtual shopping aisle, and unless a voter is completely sure of their choice, they may be swayed by a standout logo, according to Sarah Britten, creator of the logo for the Capitalist Party of SA (ZACP).

Britten said she created the ZACP logo — a purple cow’s head — with her husband, party chair Kanthan Pillay, to stand out on the ballot sheet.

“If a voter can’t see your tiny logo on a crowded ballot sheet you’ve wasted your marketing budget.

“A cow head with horns is instantly recognisable — cattle are the traditional symbol of wealth in SA.”

She said they chose purple because at the time no other party was using the colour. They now share the colour purple with Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s African Content Movement, whose colours are gold and purple.

National organiser Nicholas Boas Thipe said: “Gold is the precious metal that Africa has but is not benefiting from. Purple represents the movement serving with royalty, nobility and ambition.”

Cameron Arendse, spokesperson for Patricia de Lille’s Good party, said they chose orange because it was a bold, optimistic colour.

According to Bronwyn Williams, marketing expert at Flux Trends, African political parties tend to prefer combinations of gold, black, green and red.

“Historical connotations with colour sets and parties are far more powerful than colour psychology alone,” she added.

Williams said the worst colour for a political party would be pink, as pink in large doses tended to make people angry and uncomfortable because it is a lighter variant of red.

In SA the Free Democrats is the only political party to use pink in its logo. This is because, according to the party, “we believe all of us are pink on the inside”.