I am not sure of motd but for say, /etc/issue you need to 'echo -ne' the ansi escape code into the file, you cannot simply type or c/p it...
So:
Code:
$ echo -ne "\033[" > motd
$ echo -ne "0;34m" >> motd
$ echo "yadda yadda yadda" >> motd
$ echo -ne "\033[" >> motd
$ echo -ne "0m" >> motd
will display "yadda yadda yadda" in blue, then return colors to normal.
See this for more:
http://www.togaware.com/linux/surviv...in_Screen.html
Again though, that is for issue. I am not sure motd will even interpret the escapes...