A New Smell for Bus Shelters
Just spotted on the Chronicle website: next week, an ad firm will start making some Muni shelters smell of cookies. The idea is that commuters will smell the cookies and decide it’s time for a glass of milk, which the advertiser (the California Milk Processor Board of “Got Milk?” fame) will happily provide. Apparently this kind of aromatic marketing is a first in the U. S. No word on how such campaigns have fared elsewhere, but a couple of people quoted in the story seem skeptical. I don’t know which is better, student Veronica Navarro’s belief that “[i]t’s going to smell like cookies and bums,” or Supervisor Tom Ammiano’s philosophical remark that “[o]ne man’s cookies and milk might be another man’s kimchi.”
I fear the natural consequence of this campaign will be that whenever I think of cookie smell, I think of urine smell.
Then again, could be the kind of weight-loss motivator this country needs. Let’s here it for negative reinforcement!
mmm, cookies and pee.
In France, there were various similar campaigns using aroma diffuser with billboards. They have taken place in airport or commercials centers.
For more information about sensory marketing you can read : brandsense (in english)or Le marketing sensoriel du point de vente (in French, Dunod editor).