For football fans, tuning into NFL games every Sunday or Monday (or even Thursday) is an automatic habit. While watching the games and players and getting caught up in the storylines, it is not often that one thinks about the logo and colors of a team.
Strangely enough, though, the Color Scheme can often be one of the constants in a franchise, regardless of changes in players, owners or even cities.
Do colors really make a difference?
Humans are complex creatures. Our mindset and emotions can often change based on subtle psychological cues, which is why advertising companies spend so much money to find out which subtle cues work best.
Some of the most basic psychological cues can come from color though.
Take for example the color red, according to Colour Affects, because red has the longest wavelength of the visible spectrum, it usually appears closer to us than it actually is. This causes it to have an in-your-face impact, usually eliciting our base emotions, such as aggression, desire, or hunger. If you have ever wondered why so many restaurants choose red as their color of choice, it is to get you to eat more.
So yes, color makes small subtle differences, differences we are not always aware of, and cannot prevent even when we do acknowledge them.
How do the Packers' colors impact us?
The Green Bay Packers have several main colors on their logo and jerseys: a deep dark green, a bright yellow, and white.
According to Colour Affects, Green offers several key psychological responses. Humans can see more shades of green than most other colors and some speculate it is an evolutionary trait developed from our ancient ancestors having to wade through jungles and forests. Seeing a deep green used to indicate to our ancestors that vegetation was lush, so on a primitive level, deep green is highly reassuring to us.
The particular shade of green the Packers have is one we associate with money as well, causing us to associate the team with wealth and success.
The yellow wavelength is very long and thus stimulates us, but used in the wrong color scheme, it can elicit anxiety. Luckily the yellow in the Packers logo fits a beautiful color scheme, which causes yellow to create a hugely optimistic emotional response.
Yellow might, in fact, be the most emotionally powerful color, and psychologically indicates confidence.
White is rather bland but is effective as a jersey color because it reflects light, causing those wearing white to appear larger than they are. Yet white also makes one appear pure and innocent, as on a base level we associate white with being sterile and cleanly.
Aside from the success of the franchise, a small part of why fans have so much faith in the Packers may come from the psychological responses their colors can elicit. They exude confidence, success, optimism, and cause a feeling of reassurance. Most would agree these are the feelings many people have toward the Packers franchise and their star quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
So colors may not hold the key to NFL success, but they might certainly convince others that your team is successful and legitimized, which in itself can indirectly lead to team success.
