Olfactory Fact #108: Heavy Odors are Earthy

Some odor molecules are heavier than air and can only be detected at ground level.

A New Approach to New Car Scent!

Mitsubishi’s first venture into hybrid passenger cars may prove to be the sweetest deal on the lot! The new PX-MiEV plug-in hybrid concept CUV, unveiled October 21 at the Tokyo Motor Show, features an enhanced “cocochi” interior package that both pampers the nose and uses the olfactory capability as a tool.

The PX-MiEV’s upholstery is coated with an anti-allergen protectant and visible light photocatalyst which Mitsubishi claims counteracts both offensive odors and volatile organic compounds such as pollen and other allergens. Each of the car’s four seats are individually air-conditioned to increase air circulation.

But this smart little auto doesn’t just smell good. A unique driver monitoring system actually perceives the driver’s concentration level and emits the correct targeted scent at what could prove to be a crucial moment. If the driver appears to be dozing, an invigorating peppermint or lemon scent will snap him out of it before he strays from his lane. Conversely, an agitated driver may find himself soothed out of that road rage mood by a shot of lavender and vanilla.

If You Can’t Smell, You Don’t Know Beans

As Whiff-afficianados know by now, the taste buds of human beings can identify only 5 basic sensations: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and savory. All more subtle shades of taste are actually flavors, a co-mingling of those 5 recognizable tastes with the over-10,000 smells recognizable to humans.

In fact, as we learned in Olfactory Fact #21, an experiment by The Food Network’s popular Food Detectives blindfolded and nose-clipped a four-man panel of tasters, and discovered that the subjects were unable to distinguish between the flavors of peach and mango, coconut and cherry jelly beans, or apple and raw potato.

Here’s a nifty little experiment you can perform for yourself. Just pinch your nose closed while eating a jelly bean. The flavor of the jelly bean is reduced to a simple slightly sweet sensation in the mouth. As soon as you release your nose while still chewing on the jelly bean, you’ll get a sudden rush of flavor, demonstrating how flavorless life would be if we actually depended on taste alone to appreciate the food we enjoy.

So, You Wanna Smell Like a G-Man?

The FBI is not historically known for its hip image or tendency to follow fad. In fact, if The Sopranos’ wardrobe department can be trusted, these guys are still wearing pretty much the same suits that looked outdated in the 1950s.

My point is…if you still aren’t grasping the universal need for a “signature scent” to promote a corporate image, this particular convert should end the argument once and for all. Alerted by this ticklethewire.com article, Rachel Maddow picked up the scent of the fragrant Feds for her October 21st Ms. Information segment, declaring that every man who has ever wanted to smell like J. Edgar can now do so for the low price of $36.99 per bottle. “There is a ladies’ version coming out later next year,” assures Maddow, “which will presumably still smell like J. Edgar Hoover.”

A.P.C. & Air Aroma present Sustain

Jean Touitou, founder of A.P.C., never thought he would create a perfume…until he met essential oil perfumist Haley Alexander Van Oosten in L.A. After trying one of her essential oil blends and liking the idea of a little glass bottle inside a wood container, Touitou decided otherwise.

The end result is Sustain, is a new total-concept perfume inspired by Ray Davies’s song Waterloo Sunset. The composition contains 12 essential oils to allude to the 12 string guitar used to play the song. The wooden packaging is the reproduction of the numerical image of that same song. The name was chosen to refer to the pedal that prolongs a musical accord. Finally, in this intertwining of perfume and music, one of the ideas for the scent was to express “…the perception of the smell of a guitar case –lined in bright velvet– in which rose petals would have been scattered.”

The scent was introduced on September 10, 2009. Only 300 copies have been released worldwide.

To launch Sustain in its stores in Paris, New York and L.A., A.P.C. partnered with Air Aroma to diffuse a derivative version of Sustain through Air Aroma’s stylish Aroslim diffusers. The result is a subtle scent lingering throughout the stores, clearly leaving Touitou’s mark.

Big Nose = Big Heart?

Inspired by the works of such authors as Charles Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, and Albert Camus, Rice University sociochemist Denise Chen decided to investigate the link between scent and emotion for herself. “The olfactory brain overlaps with the emotional brain, and is believed to have contributed to its evolution,” says Chen. “They share close functional and anatomical connections.”
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Preserving Olfactory Evidence

The protocol for preserving a crime scene just got a lot smellier, thanks to a new crime fighting device that can literally bottle up a person’s distinctive odor. According to Special Agent Darrin Jones, the FBI’s new STU 100 Portable Vacuum Collection Unit collects scents “in such a way that can store that scent for later use.”

The FBI used the unit to collect the odor of Joseph Burgess, better known as “the Cookie Bandit,” who died in a shootout in the Jemez Mountains that also killed a Sandoval County sheriff’s sergeant. According to the New Mexico Police Report on the shootout, the FBI had Burgess’ clothing processed to maintain his distinctive scent.

The unit vacuums the odor onto sterile scent pads which are then stored inside a sealed tube for later use. The FBI said the advantage to the technology is collecting the odor without contaminating the evidence. The sample-scent can be taken to search sites for K-9 units to track a missing person or suspect or even used in scent line-ups where a discriminating dog can sniff out the real stinker.

Olfactory Fact #206: Scented Ads Make Cars Move Faster

When Mitsubishi’s ad agency OMD placed a leather-scented ad in two major newspapers, its Lancer Evo X sold out in two weeks, prompting a 16% increase in the auto giant’s annual sales in a market that was averaging a 20% decline.

The Sweet Scent of Singapore

Congratulations to our friends at ScentAir on their expansion into Singapore!

ION Orchard, a thriving luxury shopping experience in the heart of Singapore’s vibrant retail scene, has enlisted ScentAir and its Singapore distribution partner AllSense to design the signature scents for its 640,000 square foot mall, known for its holistic, multisensory approach.

“Our vision for ION Orchard was to create an experience – an icon fitting of its unmatched location at the gateway to one of Asia’s most vibrant shopping strips,” said Ms. Soon Su Lin, Chief Executive of Orchard Turn Developments. “True to the multisensory experience promised to guests, the mall will offer customized ION Orchard Signature scents ensuring a complete and engaging experience to any visitor.”

In addition to the ION Orchard Signature scents, fragrances such as White Tea and Thyme, Tropical Spice, Fresh Apple, Sandalwood Fire and Baby Powder are used subtly throughout the mall through ScentAir’s HVAC, in-ceiling and portable ScentWave systems.

“ION Orchard is leading the way in redefining the retail experience,” said David Amaral, Vice President of International Business for ScentAir. “We are excited to be a part of this breakthrough retail concept in such a vibrant international market.”

Olfactory Fact #711: Las Vegas has Common Scents!

Leading Las Vegas business executives tapped the Scent Marketing Institute to develop the first-ever municipal signature fragrance - the Scent Of Las Vegas - which will be unveiled at next month’s ScentWorld Conference & Expo 2009.

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