Take your average run-of-the-mill bumper sticker and print it using scented inks, adding sensory impact via a scratch & sniff statement on your vehicle.
A "Pollution Stinks" sticker will be more memorable when it smell like week-old garbage.
Folks will love your "Halfbaker On Board" sticker that smells like fresh-baked croissants.
And who could forget the distinctive aroma of "got chocolate?"
I came up with this idea when I mis-typed (very poorly) the words "bumper sticker". Although [elhigh] came up with 'fe-cals" a while ago I couldn't find scented bumper stickers anywhere.-- Canuck, Jul 24 2007 These olfactory direct prices won't last long...odor yours today.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 25 2007 I might buy the good-smelling ones, but I doubt anybody would put a sticker that smells of garbage on their car, even to make a statement.-- 5th Earth, Jul 25 2007 I think the reason that you can't find scratch-n-sniff bumper stickers is that the idea doesn't quite make sense. Your main bumper sticker consumer is in the car behind you - you'd have to emit rather a strong scent to reach that person's nose, and that wouldn't last long.
I think what's called for is a generalization of the windshield wiper fluid water cannon to multiple backwards-facing scent glands, with a little control panel offering selections all the way from Chanel #5 to Skunk #1.-- jutta, Jul 26 2007 I don't completely agree with you, jutta. Yes, taken at face value the main "consumer" would appear to be the occupant(s) of the vehicle(s) behind you, but I have read and chuckled at many a bumper sticker while walking through a parking lot, crossing the street, or even while waiting for a bus. People in these very situations are in fact the primary target audience of the Bumper Stinker. It is meant to invite and encourage a hands-on approach to getting the message across.
Imagine if you will, that you are stuck in traffic, bored out of your skull by the mindless chatter of yet another classic rock drive-time DJ. Your gaze wanders and focusses upon the bumper sticker on that worn-out looking pickup truck in the next lane. It reads "I brake for donuts" and a tiny stream of saliva escapes the corner of your mouth as you blissfully remember scratching this very same Bumper Stinker outside the local Home Depot last Saturday morning, then sniffing the wonderful freshly-glazed donut aroma. Mmmm, donuts...-- Canuck, Jul 26 2007 I'm seeing several dead bodys of canucks lying under formerly parked cars in parking lots. I'm also seeing a tailpipe with smelly exhaust competing for smell-waves and winning. Not that great of an idea, even though I'm a fan of scratch and sniff stickers. And those puffy stickers. And the hologram ones.-- k_sra, Jul 27 2007 [jutta]'s idea has a sort of scent-marking or territorial aspect to it as well. If it were combined with a small forward-mounted gas chromatograph or some other technology for an artificial nose, your car would recognise places it had driven before (without needing any of that complicated satnav).-- hippo, Jul 27 2007 Introducing the all-new Bumper Stinker Mach II - now with X-23 and riboflavin! Simply place the handy pre-glued, customized Bumper Stinker Mach II "Slogan Medium" on your vehicle where drivers following you can see it. Your Bumper Stinker Mach II has a specially encoded information strip visible only to the fabulous new Bumper Stinker Aroma-matic Fragrance Dispenser.
Any driver whose car is equipped with a Bumper Stinker Aroma-matic Fragrance Dispenser can press the conveniently-located "smell" button on their Bumper Stinker Aroma-matic Fragrance Dispenser and immediately have their car filled with whatever fascinating fragrance you have chosen to be associated with your Bumper Stinker Mach II.
Watch with delight in your rear-view mirror as people in cars following you fumble to crank their windows open when they smell your "Italian Stallion" sticker. Laugh out loud along with them when they spot your "Nitrous Oxide - Mother Nature's whoopee cushion" sticker.
Please note, the Bumper Stinker Aroma-matic Fragrance Dispenser is not compatible with original Bumper Stinker adhesive stickers, nor with any other manufacturer's stickers.-- Canuck, Jul 28 2007 [jutta] i agree, both the distance between the cars and the issue of being enclosed in it creates a problem with the smell-to-nose situation. And yes, although i sometimes halt to read a shrewed or amusingly offensive bumper sticker, i would never really be close enough to allow an odorous illustration to reach me. Maybe some kind of smell emitting exhaust could be more effective? Plus a standard car exhaust solves the pollution smell already (in joint partnership with some kind of anti-pollution bumper sticker). I vote 'save the trees' with a refreshing waft of pine..-- deoxyribonucleic, Jul 28 2007 random, halfbakery