  When designing molecular functional materials, the properties of the active
specie, the dye, must be optimized fully accounting for environmental effects.
Here we present an effective model to account for the spectroscopic effects of
the medium electronic polarizability on the properties of charge-transfer dyes.
Different classes of molecules are considered and the proposed antiadiabatic
approach to solvation is contrasted with the adiabatic approach, currently
adopted in all quantum chemical approaches to solvation. Transition frequencies
and band-shapes are addressed, and the role of the medium polarizability on
symmetry-breaking phenomena is also discussed.
