As you're walking down Locust this week, one thing’s apparent—the leaves are changing color! What a miracle of fall. The Pope must have brought it with him. But why do they change color? Most people think it’s biological; the chlorophyll breaks down so more colors other than green become visible. This all seems great and true, until you really think about it. Why would any color want to change? Nobody likes change. (Ed. Note: You’re right, I hate pennies.)
Just like every holiday and season, fall is made to be commercial. Do you see pictures of leaves changing color from 200AD? NO. The first record we have of this appeared in the ad for Sherwin William’s paint in 1866. Ever since, colored leaves have slowly steeped into daily life. Why would they do that? To sell more paint.
When the leaves change color, so do the color combinations of windows and the leaves outside of them. While you're busy eating your Frosted Flakes every morning, pixies hired by Sherwin Williams come and paint each leaf new shades such as Squash Bisque, Rustic Melon and Yale Kale. Thus, when you’re crying by the window, the clashing wall color/leaf color bothers you. Immediately you feel compelled to change the colors of your wall accordingly.
Lowbrow has become curious about the origin of this phenomenon so we reached out to Henry Sherwin’s grandmother’s great–grandson’s cat. With a definitive meow, we had confirmation of this creative scheme to change the struggling business model of Sherwin and his business partner William new venture. But how do we celebrate this phenomenon while still punishing Sherwin William’s creative scheme? The only answer is to buy Martha Stewart paint exclusively at Michael’s.
