The scene is a Thursday night in Chelsea, a trendy New York neighborhood, at a party celebrating Pantone’s 2025 Color of the Year: Mocha Mousse. The air vibrates with a curated sense of manufactured excitement, a stark contrast to the online reaction of poop emojis that greeted the announcement of this “flavorful brown.” Despite the lukewarm public reception, the party is in full swing, packed with influencers, brand representatives, and media eager to witness the unveiling of this supposedly mood-capturing hue. The atmosphere is thick with the scent of branded luxury, from custom Pantone fragrances diffusing notes of coffee and leather to the soft touch of Oyuna cashmere sourced from purportedly happy Mongolian goats. The event isn’t just about color; it’s a meticulously orchestrated celebration of consumerism, where the color serves as a backdrop for a carefully curated collection of “activations” showcasing brands like Joybird, Janavi, Pura, and Hanky Panky.
The party’s attendees, clad largely in shades of taupe and brown, navigate a landscape of product placements disguised as experiential displays. A Joybird chaise lounge draped in a Janavi throw embroidered with “ME MOMENTS” sits before an AI-generated video loop reminiscent of a sensual chocolate commercial. Hanky Panky thongs, arranged in a luxe black case, spark conversations about comfort and style, highlighting the pervasiveness of the brand’s influence. The CFO of Pantone’s parent company, X-Rite, enthusiastically discusses the thong collection, envisioning a future advent calendar filled with Pantone-colored lingerie. Even the seemingly mundane details, like Saratoga water bottles stacked to form a wall, are branded, showcasing “a legacy of colorful water.” The entire event feels like a carefully constructed Instagram feed brought to life.
The centerpiece of the event is a customized Mocha Mousse Mini Cooper, serving as a backdrop for influencer Antoni Bumba’s meticulously staged social media content creation. Bumba, a TikTok star, performs exaggerated poses and expressions for the camera, embodying the carefully crafted persona of a perpetually busy, yet glamorous influencer. The scene highlights the symbiotic relationship between brands and influencers, where each leverages the other’s reach to promote products and cultivate an aspirational lifestyle. A woman, armed with a vintage Chloé handbag and a keen eye for viral moments, captures Bumba’s performance, demonstrating the calculated nature of online content creation. The interaction further underscores the party’s underlying purpose: a carefully choreographed marketing spectacle aimed at shaping consumer desire.
Beyond the gleaming surfaces and staged interactions, a deeper layer of the event unfolds. The party’s theme of connection and harmony feels strangely disconnected from the reality of a challenging year and the uncertainties of the future. The insistence on Mocha Mousse as a symbol of grounding and comfort seems almost ironic, given the pervasive anxiety of the times. Downstairs, amidst the branded displays, a conversation unfolds about the shifting nature of time in the digital age. Shuya Gong, an innovation fellow at Harvard, discusses the blurring of past, present, and future in the constant stream of online information, suggesting that Mocha Mousse’s popularity stems from a desire for stability in a chaotic world. This juxtaposition of high-concept intellectual discourse with the superficiality of the surrounding event creates a sense of cognitive dissonance, highlighting the disconnect between the manufactured narrative and the underlying anxieties of the attendees.
The event’s culmination is a descent into a surreal dessert landscape. A long bar of actual Mocha Mousse, the culinary embodiment of the color, is displayed alongside plexiglass cubes containing the dessert’s raw ingredients. Motorola phones are strategically placed among the sweets, further blurring the lines between consumable goods and technological devices. The scene takes on a dreamlike quality, where the food appears both alluring and artificial, mirroring the carefully constructed reality of the event itself. The Motorola Razr, perched atop a cube of pistachios, beckons guests to “indulge,” echoing the marketing message of self-care and personalized moments. The entire display feels like a commentary on the commodification of experience, where even simple pleasures are filtered through the lens of branded consumerism.
The party concludes with speeches from Pantone executives, emphasizing the global reach of the Mocha Mousse phenomenon. The London Eye is illuminated in the chosen hue, and plans for celebrations in Shanghai and Mumbai are announced. The crowd erupts in applause, seemingly swept up in the manufactured enthusiasm. Aja Edmond, Motorola’s global head of brand, takes the stage, further solidifying the connection between the color and the brand’s message of personalized moments. The influencer, Bumba, chimes in with enthusiastic affirmations, playing her part in the carefully orchestrated marketing narrative. The event closes on a note of manufactured unity, where the promise of connection and harmony offered by Mocha Mousse seems to paper over the complexities and anxieties of the real world. The color, ultimately, serves as a symbol not of genuine emotion, but of a carefully constructed marketing message designed to resonate with a consumer base seeking solace in a world of constant change.
