There's a lot of people with brown skin who probably don't think poo as soon as they hear brown. It's just that white people do that, and have for centuries. If I said I had something brown that you should put in your mouth, you may think poo, but I'm talking about chocolate, which was called cacahuatl by that Mayans. When the spanish were introduced to it, they decided to change the name because although it was delicious, who wants to put a brown thin in their mouth whose name begins with "caca"?

There's probably a bunch of reasons for the "lol brown is poo" mindset, but It's easier to blame white people.

All the same, it would behoove some people (especially those who work in industries where they need to prove they keep on top of trends as they get older) to push themselves out of their fashion ruts now and then. I'm on the cusp between a boomer and an X'er, and the same old staid "safe" colors translate as "stodgy" and "stuck in the past" in the industry I work in. There's a reason hipster t-shirts are brown. It aggravates people who are used to their dictates being accepted as the standard. I know it's harder for guys to step out of their fashion ruts and try a new color, but in certain industries it translates as "My tastes aren't stuck in the past." Now, when it comes to gadgets, it may be harder to envision different colors catching on--

but this would really translate as fashion-forward. When I find myself balking at a new trend, I know that I will end up years later finally getting used to it--almost too late--but at least I'm not so stuck in the past that I never adopt it. In the industry I work in, things like this are noticed, much to my consternation sometimes. Brown is pretty fashion-forward these days, especially in clothing. Er, probably that was 8 years ago and I'm just now catching on. My point is that sleek, shiny black doesn't translate as "sleek, shiny, new, exciting" to everyone these days. To some, it translates to "safe, boring, and unimaginative." Maybe even to some, "jack-booted storm troopers etc. etc." (you get the idea.)

In plastics and electronics, brown and yellow are also colours that indicate wear and tear. Stains. Grime. Part of why beige replaced white in the early 80's computers and stayed so long was that it could mask this effect. Beige (and to a lesser degreee, brown) have thus come to be signal colours for cheapness, for lack of imagination.

Actually, I think there's a sort of "uncanny valley" in colours as well as in anthropomorphics. The brown tone can look like elegant wood, or like a bad blotchy mistake. With Microsoft's reputation for making crap in the v1.0 of each product, it's no wonder that brown was associated with, well, turdiness.

I'm also not surprised that brown is selling so well among the Zune colours. Contrarians who choose the "anti-iPod" will choose the one colour that has been denigrated the most.

When I first heard that the Zune would be available in brown, my first thought was not of dirt or shit or any of those things. It was "how boring".

As a "white" person, my skin is beige. If Microsoft had announced a beige Zune my response would have been "how boring".

Nice that Microsoft can help us realize we're more alike than we think.

Although I think the Zune is quite nice looking, I'm not interested in purchasing a device that slaps DRM on free media.

Yes, brown is the color of all of the earthy things mentioned, and it's lovely in that capacity.

But not when it comes to high-tech gadgets. I'm sorry, but I have to agree with everyone else here so far. The minority paranoia thing is misplaced. It's a shit-brick.

Ouch, Odie - you wound me. I guess I probably had it coming. But hey, it was free association; I can't help what popped out of my subconscious.

Now, where'd I put my linseed oil...

And randyman defends the glory of having graduated from Brown University against all comers. "[It's] the first thing that came to mind when I heard about people ragging on the Zune's color." The first thing, a dart aimed at where the balloon is thin. My goodness, how revealing, the associations some people have with the color brown. And we haven't even heard from the artists yet :)

Manish Vij clearly suffers from minority paranoia and feels he has to defend brownness even when it comes to electronic equipment.

Nah, I just like the color.

As Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Exactly.

Brown is one of those colors that is beautiful in nature-- hair, skin, eyes, fur, tree bark-- because natural things consist of many gradations of color. Plastic is flat and doesn't show brown up to its best advantage. I wouldn't want a peaches-and-cream color mp3 player either, for the record. Mine is matte black.

I agree 100% with gimme a break! Manish Vij clearly suffers from minority paranoia and feels he has to defend brownness even when it comes to electronic equipment. The absurdity speaks for itself.

I majored in music at Brown University back in the '70s, an experience that - as the saying goes – they can't take away from me. But I've never forgotten the sting of the moment my father (of all people) recited a witticism to me he'd probably heard from a jealous co-worker who wished to demean my father's pride:

"What's the color of shit? Brown."

Clever, no? Infantile? Yes. Still, it's the first thing that came to mind when I heard about people ragging on the Zune's color. There are plenty of reasons to diss Microsoft, but maybe there's something to learn about this lowest-common-denominator response to a color that runs so richly through the human spectrum.

Do I know what that is? No, but I have the feeling it's worth thinking about.