Pantone 448 C was selected in 2012 by Australian health authorities after research commissioned by GfK Bluemoon to find "the world's ugliest colour" for use on plain cigarette packaging. The research asked focus groups to evaluate colours for associations with dirt, tar, and death. Pantone 448 C scored highest for repulsion and was mandated for all Australian cigarette packaging — the first such law in the world.

Deliberately repulsive. This is the only colour in history specifically designed to be psychologically aversive — to reduce the appeal of a product through colour alone. Its murkiness, lack of saturation, and association with decay were specifically engineered to trigger disgust. It represents the weaponisation of colour psychology for public health purposes.

Pantone 448 C became globally famous when described as the "ugliest colour in the world" — the designation spread through media worldwide. Several countries subsequently adopted similar plain packaging laws using the same colour. The colour's fame is paradoxical — it became one of the most discussed Pantone colours precisely because of its designed unattractiveness. In art, deliberately ugly colours are rare; Pantone 448 C is the most prominent example of colour as a public health intervention.