Transcript
A (0:00)
Culties. These days I'm all about quality over quantity and that is especially true when it comes to my closet. And that is why I love Quince. Quince makes high quality wardrobe staples using premium fabrics like 100% European linen, 100% silk and organic cotton poplin. I have literally bought so much from Quince including their homewares. I literally have a beautiful linen tablecloth on my dining table right now. It is gorgeous right now. Go to quince.com/for free shipping and 365 day return returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to Q u I n c-e.com slac for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slac this episode is brought to you by Redfin.
B (0:49)
You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking, maybe even scrolling home listings on Redfin, saving homes without expecting to get them. But Redfin isn't just built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home with agents who close twice as many deals. When you find the one, you've got a real shot at getting it. Get started@redfin.com, own the dream.
A (1:15)
The views expressed on this episode, as with all episodes of Sounds Like a Cult, are solely host opinions and quoted allegations. The content here should not be taken as indisputable fact. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. You're going to have to guess. Was it a cult leader or was it a Pantone press release?
B (1:32)
All right, let's do it.
A (1:33)
The first quote goes like Choosing rest and consciously stepping away from relentless demands and turning inward recognizes that true strength lies not just in doing, but also in being Pantone. Correct?
B (1:47)
Anytime I read a Pantone press release, I'm always reminded of a quote that the head of their color marketing service, Leotris Eisman said remember that what we're selling is not necessarily a color. We're selling a feeling. What you want is to connect with the feeling. You want people to see this brown. It's luxurious. It's a sense of coziness and well being and you're painting a whole tableau.
A (2:15)
You're world building.
B (2:16)
Yeah, absolutely.
A (2:18)
This is sounds like a Cult. A show about the modern day cults with we all follow think less Jonestown and the Mansons and more Swifties marching bands incels or even just people who are a little too obsessed with astrology. I'm your host Amanda Montel, author of the books Cultish Wordslut and the Age of Magical Overthinking, now out in paperback. Every week on this show we analyze a different fanatical fringe group from the cultural zeitgeist to try and answer the big question. This group sounds like a cult, but is it really? And if so, which of our three cult categories does it fall into? A Live youe Life, a Watch your Back, or a Get the Fuck Out? Because the thing is, we happen to be living through what I believe to be the cultiest era on record. But weird groupthink and rituals and full blown exploitation don't always look like the stereotypical compound in the woods that you might imagine the word cult can apply to corporate culture, to fitness culture, even to colors. This podcast is here to bring a cheeky tone to the more serious pursuit of determining which culty groups of the 21st century are healthy, which are toxic, and which are somewhere in between. Today's subject is kind of niche, admittedly, but I hope you'll find it as intriguing as I did. We're talking about a company that claims to be, and I quote, the global authority of for color communication and inspiration. Yes, my culties. We're talking about Pantone, not Pantene, not talking about Shampoo. We're talking about Pantone. As in Pantone Color of the Year. Have you heard of it? Admittedly, before researching this episode, I wasn't even really 100% sure what kind of company Pantone was or what exactly they did. I just knew it felt culty. Pretty much. Pantone is a color standardizing system that allegedly invents and predicts the whole world's visual identity and for a pretty penny, all using pretentious elitist color names like Opacuche. Does that mean anything to you? Now, Pantone might not necessarily sound like the type of company that would encounter culty controversy, but it is. Critics have accused Pantone of being a bullshit monopoly that holds colors hostage and wields an undue level of control over something that should be universal. And all this becomes especially problematic considering scandals like certain toneless the irony Color of the Year choices, including literally period blood one year not a joke, as well as 2026's Cloud Dancer, which was just white and drew accusations of rage, bait and or eugenics messaging a la Sydney Sweetie's American Eagle ad. And if those references are too extremely online for you, bless you and we will catch you up. Don't worry. As we tend to analyze on this show, cults tend to have any number of core ingredients. An authority that claims special knowledge, a language outsiders don't quite understand, ritualistic events everyone waits for, and a product you must buy into to fully belong. We cover cult brands kind of all the time on Sounds Like a Cult, Trader Joe's, Costco, Glossier. But perhaps none have quite the level of mystique and secret cultural influence that Pantone does. This week, we're asking, is Pantone operating less like a brand and more like a belief system? And how did it convince so many people to wind up tithing $800 for the privilege of naming pink? Okay. To help us analyze the cult of Pantone today, we're joined by Corey Stamper, an author and lexicographer whose latest book, True Color is, explores the history and, dare I say, the theology of the language of color. Corey, welcome to Sounds Like a Cult.
