Category Archives: Biology of Smell

“How Manufactured Smells Are Making People Shop Longer And Kill Better” ~BuzzFeed

“Next time you’re at a hotel, chain store, large concert venue, or casino, stop and take a big sniff. It’s not unlikely that you will smell a subtle, carefully concocted scent created by fragrance specialists at ScentAir, the nation’s largest scent marketing and branding company. Their olfactory potions have an obvious purpose: to encourage customers […]

Hospital sniffer dogs smell out sick patients

Turns out dogs can identify the presence of bacterial infection by smelling the air around patients’ beds, notably in detecting the deadly infection C.difficile. Apparently the bug gives poo poo a distinctive odour, which a dog’s sensitive nose can detect. So the next time you get smelt up and down by a dog, consider it a […]

Smell Chocolate, Feel Better – says research

Neil Martin at the Human Olfaction Laboratory at Middlesex University, discovered the power of chocolate in an experiment where he filled rooms with three smells, one of chocolate, a “malodour” of machine oil, which most people find unpleasant, and a lemony, pleasant-but-alerting odour, then monitored testers’ moods. “The aim was to compare the effects of […]

The Bad News for 83% of Advertisers – Sydney Morning Herald & The Age 26/03

What we hear and what we smell are more powerful than what we see…Brand futurist Martin Lindstrom says as little as 50 years ago buying groceries was an experience that thoroughly stimulated all of the senses. Householders traipsed through the clatter and colour of vegetable markets and bought their meat in butcher shops that smelled […]

BURGER KING® FLAME™ – Body spray of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat

No jokes! American men (and women?) can for a mere $US3.99 get it on, that is get the scent of flame grilled burger on. According to their official website (http://www.firemeetsdesire.com) “The Whopper sandwich is America’s favourite burger, Flame by BK captures the essence of that love and gives it to you. Behold … now you […]

Brazil, land of sensuality and samba going big on Scent Branding

BrandChannel.com – Branding by the Nose in Brazil by Ana Paula Palombo Terzi Smell is a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week sense. It is turned on all of the time, both when people are awake and sleeping. But does this olfactory fact present actual, viable and achievable branding opportunities and new areas for the branding industry to explore […]

Smell and the rules of attraction

“…News flash! The way you smell plays a big part in your ability to attract a mate! So says a recent Canadian poll which found that 55 percent of those surveyed said they would be turned off by a date that “smelled bad.” By comparison, only 22 percent said they would lose interest in a […]

Anosmia, tuning out of the Smell

If you smell an odour for long enough, you eventually stop noticing it. This is because prolonged exposure to a strong smell is believed to saturate the olfactory epithelium with odour molecules to the point where information is no longer delivered to the brain. This is called ‘adaptation’. Loss in smell sensitivity is only temporary […]