The Asparagus Effect

If you can’t think of any non-comedic value in that distinctly sulfurous odor of a person’s urine after they eat asparagus, you’re probably not a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center.
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More Scents & the City

When a group of researchers at Rockefeller University recently initiated a 5-year study to investigate how people process olfactory sensations and thus create a “smell demography” of the Big Apple, we knew that New York was a city with an uncommon appreciation for Good Scents. Thanks to the Pratt Manhattan Gallery, you can get your nose in on the action. You Are Here: Mapping the Psychogeography of New York City is an exhibition of work by contemporary artists geared to map the emotional terrain of the City.

Guest-curated by Katharine Harmon, author of The Map as Art, the exhibition includes a wealth of inventive conceptual works such as a 3-D Jell-O map of the Manhattan skyline, an anxiety map of the five boroughs lit by sweat-powered batteries, and Nicola Twilley’s scratch-and-sniff map of the City. “I like wondering whether the world’s most adrenalized and artistic city elicits more emotional responses than others,” says Harmon. “Mapping is an intriguing way to approach the question, especially at a time when artists are using mapping concepts in such ingenious ways.”

The exhibit opens on Friday, September 24 and runs through November 6.

Olfactory Fact #717: You Can Cover Your Nose But Your Insurance Won’t

Anosmia - the complete inability to perceive odor - is not classified as a medical disorder in the US like vision and hearing defects.

Smells Like a Party!

For the six million visitors to beer tents across Germany celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Oktoberfest, Hubert Hackl may prove an unlikely hero.

The problem began when Bavaria banned smoking in all pubs, cafes, and yes - beer tents - only to realize that the cigarette smoke smelled a whole lot better than the cuisine and the patrons. The noxious blend of body odor, spoiled food and stale beer in the notoriously poorly-ventilated beer halls which had previously been masked by the smell of smoke has proven to be an ironic and unfortunate side-effect of the trend toward “indoor clean air.”

Enter Hubert Hackl, who is tackling the smelly conundrum with a stench-eating bacteria. The concoction, a brownish liquid created from fermenting a mixture of compost, seaweed and molasses, is designed to be spread across the floorboards of the beer halls where it will presumably travel the same route as spilled beer, seeping between the planks and into the soil. What remains is “a natural fertilizer for grass growing back in the spring,” says Hackl, who has been supplying detergents and other cleaning products to the beer festival for 28 years. “This is the most natural way of treating organic waste.”

Friedrich Steinberg, manager of the famous Hofbrau which was the first beer hall to test the substance in 2008, is sold on Hackl’s odor-eating cocktail. Not only is the air much more pleasant at the counters, where Steinberg says odors tend to accumulate, “things are much better in the toilets too.”

Olfactory Fact #64: You Smell Worse Every Day

By the age of 20, your sense of smell is only 82% as acute as when you were born. By the age of 60, it has dropped to 38% and, by 80, it is only 28% as sensitive as at birth.

Victoria’s Secret Scent Unveiled

Victoria’s Secret is celebrating the launch of their new signature fragrance with a bang at their Soho store in New York City, the first stop of a four-city media tour which will also include Los Angeles, Miami, and Dallas. Blended to capture “the sweet and seductive nature of the mega-watt supermodels who inspired it,” Bombshell combines fruity and floral notes for a “bold, confident, powerful and playful” fragrance.

Fragrance-lovers who purchase the Bombshell collection at the Soho launch on Friday, September 24 between 2pm and 5pm will be treated to a snootfull of extras, including free t-shirts, makeovers, personalized autographs from the Victoria’s Secret Supermodels, and a chance to participate in a “cover shoot” and see their faces on the cover of the VS catalog.

Countdown to ScentWorld Expo 2010!

If you haven’t yet registered for ScentWorld 2010, now’s the time!

This third annual conference and expo at the luxurious Gansevoort Miami Beach Hotel from November 17 - 19 will feature leading industry experts from all over the world discussing new strategies, techniques, and trends in scent branding, marketing, advertising, product design, hospitality, fashion, and much much more!

Don’t miss out on the most Scentsational Event of the Season - REGISTER TODAY!

Paladino’s Unintentionally Apropos Signature Scent

If you thought Carl Paladino’s emails stunk (he’s the guy, you might recall, who forwarded offensive offerings ranging from Riverdancing monkeys as “Proof the Irish discovered Africa” to beastiality videos involving women and horses), wait until you catch a whiff of his snail mail.

The Tea Party-favorite gubernatorial candidate filled about 200,000 New Yorkers’ mailboxes last week with campaign mailers picturing various Democratic lawmakers and asserting that “Something Stinks in Albany.” Just in case that’s too subtle for the average voter, the flyer has a little something extra - a stench of garbage.
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You’re Nobody ’til Somebody Smells You

The earliest was Elizabeth Taylor, whose White Diamonds launched in 1991 and remains a best-seller today. The latest is Lady Gaga, who has reportedly just signed a long-term licensing deal with Coty to begin creating fragrances under her name.

Perhaps the most flagrant-fragrant proof of the effectiveness of endorphin branding™ in advertising can be found in the tsunami of celebrity signature fragrances literally flooding the perfume market in recent years, a trend that now accounts for 23% of the Top 100 Women’s Fragrances. As Whiff-Aficianados know, the signature scent phenomenon is not just about selling perfume. It’s about solidifying brand recognition and loyalty – that’s endorphin branding™!

Just as a whiff of their proprietary White Tea scent is designed to instantly summon sweet memories of that fabulous getaway at the Westin Hotel where the memorable fragrance wafted through the lobby and restaurant and even your guest room, subtly but permanently stamping the association onto your brain–so should an expertly blended signature scent, once the association has been established, trigger an immediate recollection of your favorite celebrity.

The Endorphin Branding™ of Breakfast

When Professor Tim Jacobs undertook the unusual task of looking into the reason people tend to choose toast as a breakfast staple, the study led him directly to a phenomenon the Whiff-Guys have dubbed Endorphin Branding™.
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