The History Behind Colour and How It Influences Promotional Products

If you're thinking 'what colour should I choose for my promotional items this year'… then this article may be of some interest. Many colours represent different things, for example the colour blue is sometimes associated with water, the same with red and fire.

However there are other religious representations that lie with colours too. One example of this is the colour green that is associated with St Patrick's Day! Many of you may celebrate St Patrick’s Day with a few drinks down the pub... but do you really know what St Patrick's Day is all about? Every year Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated internationally on the 17th March and of course this year is no different. St Patrick’s Day commemorates Saint Patrick (hence the name).

St Patrick himself is the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland and St Patrick's Day commemorates the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. The day is usually characterised by the attendance of church services and the wearing of green attire.

One benefit of this day is the lifting of Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol... so don't feel guilty about going down to the pub to celebrate! Why do people wear green on St Patrick's Day? If you're not Irish or haven't read up on your Irish history and religious views, you're probably wondering why people wear green on St Patrick's Day!

One explanation is the colours of the Republic of Ireland are Green, white and orange. The orange usually represents the Protestant population, the green the Catholic, and the white the peace between the two. As St. Patrick was a Catholic Saint credited with converting Ireland to Christianity, the colour green is worn in celebration of him (as green represents the Catholic side of Ireland).

However this is just one of many explanations so you may hear a different story down the pub. Seasonal holidays such as St Patrick's Day are often used as the base to form a successful promotional campaign. Many companies and businesses take the colour green represented with this day and apply it to their promotional items to make them more desirable around this time of year.

Associating promotional items with different seasonal holidays is a good way of getting people interested in your brand. One good thing to remember is that if one person picks up a promotional item with your brand name plastered all over it, they will take it away with them... then anyone else this person makes contact with will too see the brand name. This is a great way of creating good brand awareness for the company!