They’re euphemistically calling it “Mocha Mousse,” but well, draw your own conclusions. Highly appropriate, I’d say. 
2 Girls; 1 Paint
I like it. 
It’s worth pointing out that some of Pantone’s earliest work was used to characterize the colors of different kinds of soil. In other words, they’ve always been heavily invested in brown.
Trivia question: Where is “Brown” on the spectrum? I mean, shouldn’t the spectrum cover all possible colors?
Answer:
“Brown” is actually very dark yellow/orange.
And the spectrum doesn’t have all colors, even allowing for darker and lighter shades. On a CIE color diagram, the line joining the red and violet ends is the “purple line”. Purple (not to be confused with violet, which IS a spectral color) is not a spectral color – you can’t characterize it by a single wavelength. The same goes for all variations of purple, including Magenta, Mauve, and Pink.
(Pink is not the same as Light Red)
Looks like more of the beigecore trend, just darker to hide stains. As for the “warm and natural” appeal, if that didn’t strike me fifty years ago in the avocado green and burnt umber era, why should it apply now?
Well, the Australian Macquarie Dictionary word of the year was just announced as ‘enshittification’, so we’ve possibly got a theme going.
Ick. What a disappointment. Enshittification, indeed.
I like brown. Brown can be beautiful and this one is quite lovely.
I do too! It’s a nice shade of brown. It’s not exciting, but colors are like people–they can’t all be exciting.
As a designer from Back In The Day (of color management), I remember Pantone being utilized precisely because of their purpose when they were founded: giving artists/graphic designers/printers/interior designers/painters a WIDE range of standardized colors.
So I’m sure the concept of “Here’s this ONE color of the year” or “Look at this ONE color society’s going to be using (but only until we announce next year’s)…” would be the opposite of Pantone’s original purpose.
I don’t know a single designer who ever said anything like “Well, since Overripe Banana was Pantone’s Color for 2000, we used it in all our Y2K marketing…”
.
eta: I see they used the word “Zeitgeist”. How pretentious…
I was looking for brown socks yesterday and didn’t find any. So maybe this announcement might make it easier for me to find something suitable. In about 3-4 months, I guess.
Actually, the colors remind me of cardboard, at least the rendering that I see on my screen.
For those who want to be trendy, it’s possible to get a phone in the color of the year.
And those who want something else:
Sheesh, not only is the color dookie, but that photo of mocha mousse looks like the poo emoji 
It gets Pantone a crap*-ton of PR and name visibility every year, which is, I imagine, exactly why they do it.
*- yes, intentional pun.
Well if they are going to choose this colour, perhaps Pantone should change their name to UnderPantone…?
Counterpoint:
Dirt or excrement might be brown, but not all browns can be compared to dirt or excrement. Urine is (hopefully) yellow, but do you point at a buttercup or taxicab and wrinkle your nose? Blood and scabs are red … Hell, Pantone even developed its own “Period Red” (it’s just plain red) in acknowledgement of the stigma surrounding menstruation. But do you look at red velvet cake or rose petals and shudder a little bit?
Colours can’t be viewed in isolation; the question is always “where would this colour be appropriate?”. The problem with Mocha Mousse isn’t that it’s inherently ugly, it’s that it’s hard for me to picture where it would look good. I think maybe in the sound-absorbing fabric panels on the walls of a home theatre, where you want something dark, fairly neutral, and non-obtrusive. The rectangular shapes on the right of the OP’s picture suggest what that might look like. I can’t think of much else.
It would be a divine color for me to wear. My auburn hair really pops against brown, and that’s a very classy shade of brown.
Woolen jackets and knits, felt or leather bags, ceramics…
or, you know, some of us have skin more-or-less that colour. I know I do (It’s Pantone 17-1230, I’m Pantone 17-1226). And I always look good, anywhere.