Fiat has come up with a catchy name for their latest campaign – Operation no grey.

In a world that seems to be obsessed with all things grey, they’ve made the bold move by announcing they’ve decided to stop producing their small car models in grey.

Why, you may ask given grey is such a popular car colour. In the UK it’s been the most popular car colour for the past 5 years. It’s a sea of grey out there!

Well, Fiat wants us to live a more vibrant and colourful life. They’re saying goodbye to grey and introducing a wide range of shades inspired by the Italian Sea, Sun, Earth, and Sky.

Fiat is no stranger to colourful cars. You may remember back in 2013 Fiat launched a range of new colours for their Fiat 500. At the time I was invited to collaborate with them on what was a world-first Facebook Fashion App. One that combined the world of fashion and cars which was really fun to work on. I was brought into the campaign to help explain the psychological traits that help define what colours people are attracted to and what it means about their personality.

In the 2013 campaign there was a sombre grey in the mix, but now it appears Fiat is saying no to grey, no matter what the shade.

The news about Fiat banning grey in all their small car models has caused quite a stir in the UK car world, given how popular the colour has been.

Last week, this ban became a hot topic in the UK media, and I ended up doing several interviews for UK newspapers and BBC radio on the subject. One of the points I raised was whether Fiat’s target audience for small cars, who are typically young at heart and fun-loving people, would actually go for grey. My suspicion is that they wouldn’t.

So it makes sense for Fiat to stop producing their small cars in grey if it wasn’t a big seller (which I’m guessing it wasn’t).

However, considering the popularity of grey in the wider UK car market, Fiat was smart to create an entire marketing campaign around this decision. It made many of us wonder why they would do that, especially since grey is such a big seller.

And let’s talk about the genius move of having Fiat’s CEO, Olivier Francois, in a grey car being dunked in a vat of orange! That certainly caught headline attention.

Although grey is popular in the broader car market, Fiat’s decision to create a marketing campaign highlighting colourful alternatives to grey was actually quite clever. Francois mentioned that the change was aimed at “enhancing the importance of colours in life, embodying the Italian way of living.” He also stated that they were disrupting the market by removing grey.

Here’s my question for Francois: If they want to showcase the colourful Italian life, why are they still keeping black and white? How do those colours fit into their philosophy of embracing a vibrant life?

To truly disrupt the market, they should consider removing these two colours as well.

So, what’s your take on it? Are you in favour of ditching the grey or not?

And if you had the chance to pick any colour for your car, what would it be? For me, it’s hands down a bright sunshine yellow. It’s always happy and cheerful, and if I had the choice, I’d probably go for a convertible. Oh, the fun we’d have going on mini adventures!

Wishing you a colourful day,
Karenx

Fiat ‘Operation No Grey’ video: watch here.