Purple peril: the colour that defined Victoria’s second wave

One colour and sound reminds every Victorian of the disastrous second coronavirus lockdown.

Has coronavirus ruined the colour purple for Victoria?

The pandemic created an unprecedented public messaging response with multiple government campaigns to make people “stay at home” and “socially distance”.

But the Department of Premier and Cabinet has revealed just how successful the state’s health campaign has been, with certain sounds and colours now being identified with the state’s fatal second wave.

How could we forget the colour purple? Victorian Premier Dan Andrews press conferences during the second wave were in front of this purple media wall. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling.

DPC secretary Jeremi Moule told the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee on Thursday the colour purple became synonymous with the state’s outbreak in 2020.

It was of course the background colour used behind Daniel Andrew’s in his 120-day run of press conferences.

“There was a very common colour used,” said Mr Moule.

“It was a purple sort of colour...even showing people that colour, to people they associated it with the campaign.

The colour was popping up in national TV ads for coronavirus. Picture: Department of Health via NCA NewsWire.

“In more recent times — so beyond the second wave — that colour has changed and that was to indicate a different phase and the types of messages we needed to communicate.”

Overall, the Victoria Government’s campaign was deemed very successful with messaging having a 98 per cent reach in the Victorian community — a high standard compared to normal advertising.

Mr Moule also pointed out the effectiveness of audio cues to alert people the following advertisement was a government announcement.

“There was a specific audio tone used, I won’t try and replicate it...

Jeroen Weimar, testing commander, gives a press conference in front of a very different coloured media wall in February this year. Picture: Luis Ascui/Getty Image.

“It was used at the start of ads and continues to be used at the start of ads as it was really resonating with people in terms of that familiarity, and then hearing that cue and expecting that what you’re going to hear next was a was a message from the government.

“Our evaluation of that mechanism showed that was effective and has continued to be so for a large period of time.”

The government also revealed they were required to use 57 languages, and Mr Moule said the unprecedented advertising had created leanings that would revolutionise future advertising or government departments.

[e-mail]