# Undercover Colors Undercover Colors is a nail polish brand created in 2014 by four North Carolina State University students that claimed to change color when dipped into drinks spiked with Rohypnol, Xanax or GHB. The product went viral in late August 2014 after Jezebel and Time coverage split readers between praise for an anti-assault tool and criticism that it placed safety burdens on women. The backlash itself turned into jokes on August 26, when reporter Andrea Grimes' sarcastic tweet earned over 8,000 retweets in 48 hours and Redditor atrain444 posted a defensive AdviceAnimals macro. ## Origin In early 2014, four North Carolina State University undergraduates, Tyler Confrey-Maloney, Stephen Gray, Ankesh Madan and Tasso Von Windheim, founded the Undercover Colors startup around a nail polish they said would detect common date-rape drugs on contact with a spiked drink[4]. The team registered UndercoverColors.com on January 16, 2014 and launched a company Facebook page for product updates on April 15[8]. Media debate did not catch fire until August. Britain's Daily Mail covered the invention on August 22, 2014, and Jezebel followed with 'This Nail Polish Changes Color When Exposed to Date Rape Drugs' on August 24, which gave the startup a cautiously interested write-up[1]. By August 26, feminist critics and defensive meme posters were going at each other across Twitter and Reddit[6]. - **Platform:** News blogs (Jezebel, Animal New York) / Twitter and Reddit (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2014 ## Overview Undercover Colors lives on less as the product itself than as the discourse pattern it kicked off in a two-day stretch in late August 2014. Feminist bloggers at Jezebel, Huffington Post and Time argued that drug-detecting polish shifts the work of preventing assault onto potential victims, while Reddit threads defended the four undergraduate inventors against what commenters called feminist overreach[1][2]. Two reaction posts crystallized the two sides. Andrea Grimes' tweet joked that convincing men to actually wear the polish was the real difficulty, earning over 8,100 favorites and 8,000 retweets within 48 hours[6]. On the opposite side, Redditor atrain444 posted an AdviceAnimals-style image macro titled 'How the guys who invented a date-rape drug detecting nail polish feel after being attacked by feminists for promoting rape culture,' gathering more than 3,600 upvotes at 92% approval on r/AdviceAnimals[7]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Undercover Colors? Undercover Colors is a nail polish brand founded in 2014 by four North Carolina State University students that promised to change color when exposed to common date-rape drugs like Rohypnol, Xanax or GHB[4]. ### Where did Undercover Colors come from? Tyler Confrey-Maloney, Stephen Gray, Ankesh Madan and Tasso Von Windheim started the company at NC State in early 2014, registering UndercoverColors.com on January 16 of that year[8]. ### What does Undercover Colors mean? The name points at the polish quietly blowing cover on a spiked drink by shifting shade, though Time and Huffington Post critics argued the deeper meaning was placing assault prevention duties on women[2][3]. ### How do you use Undercover Colors? The pitch was that a wearer would stir a drink with a polished nail and watch for a color change signalling a date-rape drug, though Animal New York argued the chemistry could not reliably work in a bar setting[5]. ### Is Undercover Colors still popular? Media attention peaked in the final week of August 2014 across Jezebel, Time and Huffington Post[1][3], and the controversy is now a dated 2014 artifact rather than an active meme format. ## References 1. [http://jezebel.com/this-nail-polish-changes-color-when-exposed-to-date-ra-1626226666]() 2. [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sophia-kerby/what-undercover-colors-gets-all-wrong-about-date-rape_b_5722724.html]() 3. [http://time.com/3183170/rape-nail-polish-anti-rape-products/]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/undercover-colors]() 5. [http://animalnewyork.com/2014/date-rape-drug-detecting-nail-polish-wont-work/]() 6. [https://twitter.com/andreagrimes/statuses/504300471885246465]() 7. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/2enzqc/how_the_guys_who_invented_a_daterape_drug/]() 8. [http://www.undercovercolors.com/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/undercover-colors Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library