Go Away Green: Disney’s Discreet Color That Can Help You Stay Hidden
Sometimes, remaining out of sight is the best course of action. Maybe you’re out hunting in the woods. Maybe you’re trying to lay low and avoid notice by marauding gangs of looters or rioters. Or, maybe, you just prefer to avoid drawing attention to yourself as a matter of course.
Whatever situation you’re in and whatever your goals, camouflage is the answer. But when we think of camouflage we typically think of intricate patterns that adorn military fatigues, vehicles and installations.
But believe it or not, sometimes camouflage is just a single, perfectly chosen color. Just ask Disney, they know all about it.
You heard me right. Disney. Yes, that Disney, Mouse and Co.
In what is sure to be just another awesome bit of Disney trivia, they actually pioneered a specially formulated shade of green paint, called Go Away Green, that they use to hide all of the things they don’t want you to pay attention to on their properties. And I’m here to tell you, the stuff works!
I don’t care who came up with a winning strategy, and you shouldn’t either, and in the rest of this article I’m going to tell you all about Disney’s Go Away Green and how you can use it for your own benefit.
Seriously, Disney Uses Camo Now?
Yes, they do! Or rather they have, and have for some time. If Disney as a company is serious about one thing, aside from making all the money in the world, it’s providing guests with a seamless and world-class experience in all of their parks scattered around the globe.
As you already know, Disney spares no expense when it comes to architecture, set dressing, and all of the other elements required to quite literally transport guests to another fictional reality.
But the only way they can do this is through the careful management of perception, specifically hiding many mundane things that they don’t want you to see.
I’m talking about things like mundane utility buildings, fixtures, and anything else that might snap someone out of the illusion that they are inhabiting one of these fictional worlds they craft.
Accordingly, they developed Go Away Green, a special shade of green that is specifically designed to blend into a background of foliage, and generally be beneath notice any other time.
it is pretty marvelous how the stuff just encourages the eye to move right past it and focus on all of the other pretty colors and intricate patterns in the area.
Believe me, there’s no telling how much money Disney spent on developing this stuff, so we can skip right to the end and declare it “good” before we reappropriate it for our own purposes.
How Go Away Green Works
Go Away Green is not special in terms of camouflage theory. This color works like any other monotone camouflage by reducing contrast to a degree that the eye is encouraged to give it no special attention.
I will spare you an intricate discussion of camouflage theory as it relates to human physiology, we’ve covered that elsewhere, but suffice it to say that Go Away Green is truly minimally noticeable against any other similarly colored background and even against a backdrop of other contrasting colors. The stuff just screams ignore me!
Now, I want to clear something up: Go Away Green is a specially formulated paint, both in terms of color and also the chemical composition.
As you probably already guessed, Disney is not telling in terms of the exact color code or what ingredients go into it.
Still, there isn’t anything otherwise magical about it despite Disneyland being the most magical place on Earth: it’s just a green tone that is carefully chosen for its concealment properties in specific environments.
There is a Historical Precedent for Greens Like This
Something else to keep in mind is that there is already a long and distinguished history of monochrome greens like this being used for concealment purposes, even in a military context.
Pretty much every prepper, serviceman, and shooter already knows and loves OD, or olive drab green.
It was chosen because it was a color that was minimally observable in most environments that had any foliage in them, be it grass, shrubbery or trees.
But before good old American OD was created, the Germans cranked out feldgrau, or field gray, a dark, flat green gray, back around the turn of World War I and used it through World War II and even later in one form or another.
Now, before I get jumped by the real military history buffs, yes, feldgrau is it sort of a family of colors or a guideline, encompassing various greens and grays, and even browns. But that early feldgrau color is very much in line with Go Away Green.
You might even argue that that terrible darker mint green color that was part of the army’s short-lived universal camouflage pattern is pretty close to Go Away Green, and maybe even an ancestor of sorts of field gray.
What Color is Go Away Green, Exactly?
No one knows, and Disney isn’t telling. There is no specific hex code, RGB code, LRV number or any other ratio you can hand off to someone at the paint department and get Go Away Green.
But, based on my own determinations and those of others who are on a quest to crack the code of Go Away Green, we’ve already got several paints available from major manufacturers that are really close.
How Can You Use Go Away Green to Hide Yourself in a Survival Situation?
Go Away Green has many applications for people in a survival situation. It makes a fantastic single color camouflage or even a base color for other camouflage if you’re in a predominantly green environment, or setting up against a predominantly green background.
There is a reason militaries choose greens time and time and time again unless they are in snowy environments or desert ones. They just blend in!
You could use Go Away Green to help with the following:
Conceal Buildings and Infrastructure at your Bug-out Location
Go Away Green works wonders to hide all things against green backgrounds. It can help conceal your cabin from view from the ground or from the air, and hide any radio towers, outposts, or other infrastructure.
Spray Backpacks and Other Gear
Like I mentioned above, this stuff is a remarkably good color to serve as a single, all-over and all-purpose camouflage.
If you have brightly colored backpacks or other gear, or any equipment that is in a non-environment color, just spray it down with a Go Away Green spray paint and you’ll be in business, or have the paint thinned for use in an airbrush or other sprayer and give it a good coat before sealing it.
Pick Go Away Green Clothing
You won’t have to look very hard to find clothing that is close enough to Go Away Green to pass.
Several military greens, as I’ve already mentioned, already fit the bill, and it won’t be hard to find earth tones from your local outdoor or hiking and camping store.
And something else to consider: probably the best thing about Go Away Green is that, for whatever reason, it just doesn’t scream military green.
It’s hard to put your finger on it, but it is a distinctly friendlier color compared to traditional camouflage greens are probably thinking of.
This can be important in social situations if you have to make contact with other people, or if you just like the idea of truly being the gray man in the background: you won’t stick out like some weird guy that’s already kitted out in camouflage.
How Can You Use Go Away Green When Bugging In?
As I’ve already said, Go Away Green is borderline magic when you just want to encourage people to not pay close attention.
Things really do just seem to fade into the background and look unimportant when they are painted in this color.
For a bug-in situation, you might try to paint your sheds and out buildings Go Away Green, or, depending on where you live and what your preferences are, you might paint your siding or even your brick in this color.
It’s not for everyone, but it is an option and it doesn’t look like you’ve painted your home to look like a military bunker.
Another good option is to paint fencing, antennas and other important infrastructure in Go Away Green to help prevent detection at a distance and especially from the air.
It’s also the perfect color to paint security cameras and other sensors so they aren’t picked up by potential Intruders
Basically, any situation where security or counter-surveillance efficacy could be improved with proper camouflage, Go Away Green is a great choice that doesn’t immediately stand out as militaristic.
Go Away Green Variants
I said above that the exact color codes and chemical makeup of Go Away Green is a closely guarded secret as with everything else proprietary that Disney does. But the good news is we don’t need the exact color, we just need to get really close.
Sherwin-Williams makes a color called Relish which is almost identical to that darker mint green color of UCP I mentioned.
That’s a great and commonly available paint that might be perfect for your purposes. A slightly darker Sherwin-Williams version is Agate Green.
Another common color that should be easy to find at your local big box home improvement store is Behr’s Gallery Green.
And don’t get too wrapped up with trying to match the color exactly: you can take a chip or sample of any one of those colors, or even a good picture of a Go Away Green from a photograph taken at a Disney park and find a green paint that is close enough; Disney actually uses several tints and shades of Go Away Green as needed!
Just make sure you get a flat version if you want to use it for your field gear, and nothing glossier than a satin version for at-home use.
Make it Disappear Like Disney Does with Go Away Green
If you’re ready for a new camouflage color that doesn’t immediately stick out as overtly defensive, Go Away Green is the solution.
It is so adaptable and so subtle it really does border on magic, and it is quickly become my favorite low-profile color. Give it a try, and I’m sure you’ll feel the same way.
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