Jan 9, 2007

Olfactory Advertising but Not in New York

Advertisers recently installed posters in several San Francisco bus shelters that give off the scent of freshly baked cookies, this ploy is designed to get folks thinking about drinking more milk.

The technology that creates the scent is identical to that used in magazine ads for perfume and other scented products. Adhesives coated with the scent are placed throughout the interior of the bus shelters, including under the benches.

“As long as they are not harmful chemicals, it’s OK,” one somewhat confused elderly woman said as she pondered the cookie smell in one of the shelters. “They are trying to sell milk? Is that it?”

The effort at five bus shelters is part of a campaign cooked up by the California Milk Processor Board, whose iconic “Got Milk?” campaign has adorned famous figures from around the world with milk moustaches for 13 years.

There is a rumor they will be trying this type of advertising in New York but first they have to figure out how to get the smell of urine out of the bus shelters. An un-named source in the New York government is quoted as saying, “Cookies and pee don’t mix too well, we don’t want folks puking while catching their morning bus”.

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