This is officially the world's ugliest colour

It's really not pretty...

Described as 'death, dirty or tar' Pantone 488C has officially been crowned the ugliest, and least appealing colour in the world.

Poor Pantone 488C!

Why would anyone want to work out what the world's ugliest colour was? Well, the icky brown shade actually has an important mission.The colour has been charged with the mission of stopping people from smoking.

The Australian government spent 3 months researching what hues people found the least appealing, in an attempt to make fag packets uglier. The colour, named Pantone 488C, and also known as Opaque Couche, was awarded the dubious honour of being the most hated tone in the competition.

The unusual task of finding a colour that would encourage negative perceptions was handed to the marketing company GFK all in the hopes of lowering Australia’s tobacco sales. The murky shade had the lowest overall appeal to the research participants, who were active smokes aged between 16 and 64. The idea is that if the cigarette packets look hideous enough, no-one is going to want to be seen carrying them.

Dark brown came in close second to Opaque Couche, but lost out on the title of ugliest colour as some perceived it as rich and luxurious. Medium olive was also in the running, but was rejected on the basis of being too 'classy'. Other options included lime green, beige and mustard but in the end Pantone 488C was the undisputed champion.

The colour was referred to as ‘olive green’ until the Australian Olive Association (understandably) took offence resulting in its new nickname 'Drab dark brown'. Charming.

Other countries including the UK have followed suit, using the unsightly colour to comply with their new 'plain packaging' laws.