“Think pink! Think pink! When you’re shopping for summer clothes. Think pink! Think pink! If you want someone to choose.”

That advice, sung like an epiphany in the 1957 movie musical “Funny Face,” has definitely been heard: Just take a look at fashion and the media. The fascination with pink, each hue and hue with its own connotation, has shaped those cultural engines for generations, revving up in full force as we hit peak “Barbie” season.

Color has been a crucial detail for film and television, from that scene in “Funny Face,” to Elle Woods donning her iconic head-to-toe vibrant pink outfit in 2001’s “Legally Blonde,” to “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” where shades of pink in the wardrobe play a symbolic role in the final season. And now, with the release of the Greta Gerwig-directed film, the vividly sizzling “Barbie Pink” is inescapable.

Throughout history, designers, artists and brands have played with the emotions that color evokes, shaping ever-evolving meanings. From gender to class, those associations have been constantly challenged, changed, and subverted—while the definition of pink is always changing, there’s one constant: its cultural staying power.

Pink first came into fashion in the 18th century at the French court, due to a new dye source that imparted a more vivid, long-lasting color to fabrics, explained Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT and one of the authors of Pink: the story of a punk color, beautiful and powerful.

Since then, the prestige of pink has come and gone; as pink dyes became more accessible to the working class, the color lost its association with wealth and prestige.

When it was first popularized, it was worn by both men and women, but in the 1920s, department stores in the US reclaimed blue for boys and pink for girls.

“It was really totally arbitrary,” Steele said of the correlation.

Fast forward a few generations to 2016, when Pantone chose “Rose Quartz” as its color of the year: Muted dusty pink is calming but also connotes strength, said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. She told The Associated Press that one reason for the choice was the increase in “gender blur.” (The color was quickly embraced by fashion and interior designers, earning it the nickname “millennial pink.”)

That symbiotic influence—pink providing texture and getting a boost from a cultural force—was evident the following year at the Women’s March on Washington, where protesters donned hot pink “kitty hats.”

“Pink has become, in many ways, the most controversial color in fashion, and fashion is always interested in controversy,” Steele said.

For the British artist Stuart Semple, pink is the color of rebellion and the occupation of space. Semple created the “pinkest pink” paint in 2016 in reaction to the purchase and reservation of the art rights to the Vantablack pigment by artist Anish Kapoor, said to be the world’s blackest black.

Semple has made his painting, destined to be the fluorescent apotheosis of color, accessible to everyone at an affordable price.

“I thought it was wrong for me to hold onto this incredible color that I had created. So I wanted it to be available to everyone,” Semple told the AP. “Apart from him (Kapoor), for obvious reasons.”

Semple chose pink because it was the “antithesis” of black and is a political, vibrant color and “perfect for defying convention”.

Tanisha Ford, professor of history at the City University of New York Graduate Center, noted how male artists, specifically male artists of color like Bad Bunny; Tyler, The Creator, and Jaden Smith have sparked more complex conversations about masculinity by wearing pink.

Color is subversive, but it’s also used in a very “ironic” way, Ford said.

“People of color have been denied leisure and rest,” Ford said. “So…if you’re wearing these preppy clothes or you’re wearing your fancy yacht clothes, you’re betting on leisure.”

When it comes down to it, there’s a simple reason people still wear pink: it looks good.

“At its core, it’s a very flattering color,” says Barry Manuel, a professor of fashion at New York University.

The season of ‘Barbie Pink’

Pink has long been associated with the Barbie brand, it even has its own Pantone color. But even though Barbie was first launched in 1959, Mattel didn’t start introducing predominantly pink packaging until the 1970s, said Kim Culmone, Mattel’s senior vice president and global head of Barbie and fashion doll design.

When discussing the shades of pink associated with the brand, Culmone noted that there is something uplifting and joyful about “Barbie Pink.”

“The most important thing is that, for us, it is really a symbolism of empowerment. Barbie is the original brand of girl empowerment,” said Culmone.

It came as no surprise that the first full-length trailer for the film looked rosy and depicted Barbie Land as a fun cotton candy wonderland that seems a bit contrived. After the trailer was released, news reports claimed that the production team bought so many cans of pink paint that it depleted the world’s supply.

Gerwig told the AP she wasn’t so sure about that, but confirmed that the team bought all the cans of pink paint from one particular company. The director explained that it was important to use pink paint to capture older filmmaking techniques and make the audience feel that Barbie Land was tactile.

“They are toys, and what are toys but things you touch? So getting all that pink paint to paint everything was important,” Gerwig said.

capitalizing on color

Semple, however, has taken issue with the monopoly and the “press that ran out of paint supplies”.

“Whether it’s true or not, it’s not very nice,” he told the AP.

Semple explains that he is up against what he calls “Big Color,” where corporations dominate usage. He cited “Tiffany Blue,” the jewelry company’s trademark color.

In response to “Barbie”, Semple went back to his previous game plan and created “the Barbiest Pink”. Called “Pinkie”, anyone can buy the paint color, as long as he can prove that he is not a Mattel employee.

“The colors should belong to everyone. And corporations should do what they do best, which is corporate stuff, and maybe leave the colors alone,” Semple said.

When asked for comment on Semple’s “Pinkie” painting, a Mattel spokesperson simply responded in an email: “While not a registered trademark, Barbie Pink is recognized as a famous brand name.”

We’re drawn to colors because they instantly convey various emotions, explained David Loranger, a professor of merchandising and fashion marketing at Sacred Heart University.

“I feel like having a direct line to the senses from a marketing standpoint is very important because it’s a non-verbal vehicle, it’s a semiotic vehicle,” Loranger said. “The best marketing is deeply rooted in emotion.”

But where do those innate emotional connections come from? It could come from something in nature, a belief system, or something we’ve been told.

“Each color has a meaning that we perceive almost inherently from that color, whether we have learned it through association or simply through conditioning, which helps us intuitively understand the message and meaning being conveyed,” Pressman said.

When it comes to consumer marketing, the wide variation in meanings for pink means everyone can get in on the action. From couture (Valentino collaborated with Pantone and created a collection from the resulting custom shade, which was shown on a pink runway last March) to everyday items, pink abounds.

Marks now help shape our perception of color, and it pays to have a signature hue.

“Color can be an effective marketing tool. But more than I would say is a bigger idea about claiming something, finding something new to talk about telling a story to the consumer,” Miguel said.

Clad in pink, “Barbie” captures an artificial dreamland that instills nostalgia and joy, satisfying an audience’s need to escape.

“People are happy to find something that captures the imagination and transports them to a simple, happy and fun place,” Miguel said, “and pink is that.”