Silver or ruby. What’s on your brand’s feet?
In 1900, L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and gave Dorothy a pair of silver shoes. They carried her down the yellow brick road, clicked her home to Kansas and fell off somewhere over a desert on the way back. Nobody found them. Almost nobody remembers they existed.
Thirty-nine years later, MGM was preparing to shoot the film and it had a problem most studios would kill for. Three-strip Technicolor: a camera that could capture real colour for the first time. Silver shoes just wouldn’t shine. So the shoes were changed to ruby red. Not because red suited the character, or made for a better story. Because ruby red slippers, engineered to sparkle on a yellow brick road, would stand out in a way silver never could.
That one decision turned a costume prop into one of the most recognised objects in film history. In 2024, a single pair sold at auction for $32.5 million. All because somebody chose ruby red instead. Shiny, sparkly and iconic.
So what do Dorothy’s slippers have to do with brands and memorability?
Well, we see categories like this.
Every category has its own version of the yellow brick road. A route that every brand lives and walks, every day and night, same direction, same road.
And most of them are wearing silver slippers.
Now look, silver works. It’s familiar, it feels safe, it’s what other brands in your category are wearing. Nobody is going to call it wrong. But here’s the thing. People see brands the way a Technicolor camera sees shoes. And silver walking on your category’s yellow brick road just doesn’t sparkle all that much. So that familiar, safe choice stops being familiar and safe and starts being forgettable. And in a category where every brand is spending to be noticed, forgettable is the most expensive thing you can be.
The brands in any category that people actually remember? At some point, somebody in that business looked at silver and said that’s not us. They made a choice. They chose ruby.
That’s all it is. Ruby isn’t louder. It isn’t wilder. Ruby is a decision. Silver is what you’re wearing when you never made one.
And the brands that make that choice give themselves a greater chance of being noticed, being remembered, and who knows, hopefully iconic.
But red with nothing behind it is just a loud pair of shoes. MGM’s slippers didn’t sparkle because they were red. They sparkled because Technicolor was real. There was substance behind the colour. Ruby without that is just silver in a louder outfit.
So here’s a question worth taking into your next brand review. Take a look at your category’s yellow brick road. What’s everyone wearing? Better yet, what’s on your feet? Could another brand in your category put on your shoes, walk the same road, and have nobody notice the difference? Same tone, same look, same promises. If they could, you’re wearing silver. And silver isn’t wrong. It’s just not a choice.
At The Behaviours Agency, we help brands make the ruby choice. If you’re not sure what’s on your feet, that’s the conversation we should be having.
