Why do manufacturers use artificial colors?

They say the first taste is with the eye. Manufacturers add artificial colours to make food and drink products more appealing to consumers. Would you rather eat a cupcake with red icing, or grey icing? Would a breakfast cereal be as enticing if it were kind of grey instead of golden brown? Try this experiment: blindfold a friend or two. Then have them take a sip of Coca Cola. See if they can guess what they drank without getting to see the dark brown fizzy liquid. It is surprising how many people cannot identify it.