Why did my highlights turn pink/purple in Xubuntu 14.10?

Around the time of the start to testing of the second beta for Xubuntu 14.10, my highlights turned pink system-wide. What gives?

As confirmed in remarks by Xubuntu Project Leader Simon Steinbeiß in Launchpad Bug 1373280, the changes can be adjusted through the use of the gtk-theme-config utility included in Xubuntu. This was confirmed as not a bug but a deliberate design decision.

A deliberate design decision was made to emphasize the "unicorn" aspect to the 14.10 release by updating the default theme in various ways such as making the pink highlight occur even for those upgrading from 14.04 as well as for those making new installations. In the drafted release notes for Xubuntu 14.10 Beta 2, the release team stated:

To celebrate the 14.10 codename "Utopic Unicorn" and to demonstrate the easy customisability of Xubuntu, highlight colors have been turned pink for this release. You can easily revert this change by using the theme configuration application (gtk-theme-config) under the Settings Manager; simply turn Custom Highlight Colors "Off" and click "Apply". Of course, if you wish, you can change the highlight color to something you like better than the default blue!