» Humor

The smells of NY

airsense — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:47:04 +0000

Think you know what NY smells like in summer? Where do you suppose you are if what you’re smelling is laundry, beer, juniper and hair wax? If you can’t get to NY yourself to figure it out, try using this smell map of NY from a recent NY Times.

Author and illustrator Jason Logan tackles the regions of Manhattan the way a biologist might document life in various micro climates. One smell at a time.

Link: New York Times

Tagged: Art, Humor, Trends

Odors of the world mapped by Smell Club

airsense — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:02:27 +0000

A Japanese web site dubbed the “Smell Club” has undertaken the mission of mapping the aromas of the world. Launched last month, the site has a couple hundred devoted “smellists” who are cataloging the scents they encounter. For now, you can click on map locations tagged with things like “the bad breath of cats,” “the toasty odor of cow dung,” or “freshly aired futons.” If you read Japanese, that is. It’s unclear how they’ll account for the fact that aromas change, or if they’ll make any attempt to verify the scents.

View the site at www.nioibu.com (Japanese language only) or read more at the UK Guardian

Tagged: Humor, Odor Perception, Trends

The state of Smell-o-vision

airsense — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:16:13 +0000

Weird Al Yankovic tells us all about it:

Thanks for the tip to the Smell O Vision blog

Tagged: Humor

Australian man demonstrates limits of scent masking

airsense — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:29:53 +0000

In case you are in doubt about the need for odor neutralizers, and feeling tempted to simply cover up bad smells with good ones, take heed. An Australian man recently killed his girlfriend, then tried using rose-scented candles and an aerosol spray to cover up the smell. I think he’s in jail now.

Aromatic alarm clock wakes you with bacon

airsense — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:19:20 +0000

The scent of bacon always reminds me of lazy Sundays, when Dad would be home watching wrestling on TV, and mom would be making pancakes and bacon. Several decades later, thanks to some freaky genius designers, I can wake up to the scent of bacon every morning, and nobody has to cook it for me.

Yep, it’s the Wake n’ Bacon Alarm Clock. Set the alarm before you go to bed, insert some frozen bacon, and say good night. Ten minutes before you want to get up the little halogen lamps inside will heat up and start doing their job. If everything goes according to plan, you will start dreaming about eating bacon, and by the time your eyes open, your dream will come true. Now, there’s an invention I can get behind.

Link: Matty Sallin

Feeling low? Try on a bacon-scented tuxedo!

airsense — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:34:34 +0000

To go with those pork-scented postage stamps, we now have bacon-scented clothing. A tuxedo, to be exact. It’s from those funny folks over at Archie McPhee, who finally came up with something worthy of mention in New York magazine. Sadly, it’s actually an April Fools’ hoax.

Links: NewYork Mag, Archie McPhee

Ambient scenting companies advertising via YouTube

airsense — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:11:16 +0000

Air Aroma, a scent marketing company based in Melbourne, is doing talk-free, animated television ads.

Kyoto company Sante Claire has got an infomercial-style ad about its scent diffusers on YouTube. See and hear ultrasonic technology explained, and experience the beauty of their “Wedding” model, introduced at this year’s Tokyo International Gift Show.

And for your entertainment, here’s an American infomercial from the Home Shopping Network about a “programmable hush fragrance aroma pulse system kit.” Say that five times fast!

Scenting the revolution

airsense — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:23:00 +0000

Fragrance isn’t just for marketing products anymore. Spain’s Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) is using fragrance to try and win an election. The party’s new fragrance is a mixture of Mediterranean fruits and herbs whose collective aroma smells like socialism’s values: “confidence, equality, progress and efficiency.” The PSC will be sending samples to all the political parties in the Catalan parliament, as well as selling it in their Barcelona headquarters, offices and party meetings. The party suggests using it in offices to create a “pleasant environment of equality and fairness.”

Spain is apparently not the first country to mix perfume and politics. Russia has several politicians marketing their own fragrances, in a fashion similar to celebrity fragrances so popular in the West.

Read more in the UK Guardian and Cosmetics Design Europe.

Smell-o-phone sendup

airsense — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:51:00 +0000

Giant Tuesday Night shows us the potential of the Smell-o-phone:

Aromatic comedy debuts in Southern California

airsense — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:31:00 +0000

Inspired by the movie adaptation of Patrick Suskind’s novel “Perfume,” THEATRX’s “Scent of a Woman” portrays an older couple that bottles one another’s scents in an effort to rekindle their relationship. The scents, Eau d’Arlene and Eau d’Al, involve Crisco and sweat, and their manufacture can be seen at THEATRX in Escondido, CA through October 7. Read more at the North County Times