Advertising That Smells

   Advertisers have already captured most of our 5 senses, and they’re about to conquer another. Earlier this year, we showed you that wireless power is coming. Now, the entertainment world is going to get yet another treat.

   Companies have just started trying advertisements that are made of specially crafted chemicals which smell like everyday products. As I speak, California is testing out technology that wafts coffee aroma at gas pumps in an attempt to get your brain craving coffee. If you’re like me, and love a coffee in the morning, chances are you’ll gravitate towards the coffee counter like a sheep being heard.

   They won’t be stopping there either. When people smell a profit to be made, the market will soon be flooded. Clear Channel is experimenting with scented billboards as well as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal plan to offer “rub and sniff” newspaper ads. I’m just not too sure that the world needs a newspaper that smells like a McGriddle or even the “catch of the day”.


  The most intriguing use of this new technology, perhaps, will be the invasion our living room by integrating into our home theatre system. Wal-Mart is rolling out experimental DVDs with “smell-o-vision”, which will release scents at certain key scenes in movies and television shows. Everything from burning house fires, to the smell of gun smoke after a blazing battle will emit scents that bring you right into the movie! Theatres are also expected to implement scents by the end of 2007. This is quite an interesting concept that only time will tell if people find it an enhancement to their viewing experience or another way to polluting their living rooms with strange scented aromas.


   This last December, scentvertising was put to test in San Francisco, and the campaign was short lived. Bus shelters were equipped with chocolate chip cookie fragranced strips for a “Got Milk” campaign. It only took a few days before transit authorities tore down the strips after commuters complained that they were triggering allergic reactions! But yet, this still hasn’t even come close to scaring off advertisers from “trying it out”.

   This year alone, advertising companies plan to spend roughly $80 million on scent marketing and up to $500 million by 2016. As long as too many people don’t complain or get some new form of cancer, we’re going to be using our noses a lot more in the near future.