Perfume

Some of the most interesting research studies begin with simple ideas and questions. About 10 years ago I was asked by a newspaper reporter to imagine what the newspaper of the future (the electronic newspaper) would be like. Thus began years of simple thought experiments. One outcome of this work was a study about perfume and the advertising of perfume.

Our sense of smell is profoundly powerful because it is so deeply ingrained into our most primitive self. A strange smell can sometimes evoke long suppressed memory: "it was as if I was 4 years old and I was at my grandmothers and it was like the smell of the suntan lotion my mother would slather onto us . . ." Our sense of smell is powerful, primitive and pre-conscious. People react to smell irrationally: it is a component of experience for which we do not reason. It is almost entirely an emotional response with the inclusion of memory.

I'll show a handful of interviews of ordinary people explaining how they feel about perfume, their thoughts about someone else's scent, how they choose the perfume they purchase for themselves. They speak of why they wear different perfumes and what they like and hate about them. They speak of their expectations and reasons for creating a personal "scent".