This is for use in any place with distinctly separate rank tiers, like military, police, law firms, etc. that is intended to be blind-friendly and make the place more interesting.

Each person of a given rank is assigned a scent. For instance, an E-1 must wear Axe Kilo, an E-2 wears Axe Tsunami, etc. I'm not saying it must be any particular brand (that would be advocacy), that would be a decision for the management team of the company. To be considered properly in-uniform, you must be smellable (by an average person) from a range of at least 1 meter. That way, if somebody gets in your face and starts yelling at you, you can tell by smell just how much they outrank you by. If you have a cold, you're on your own I'm afraid.
-- 21 Quest, Jan 20 2007

Wow. This idea must really suck. Been sitting here all day, no annos and no votes except my own (I admit, I voted for my own idea, it was lonely).

Is this prior art, bad science, or just plain boring?
-- 21 Quest, Jan 20 2007


smell this croissant +
-- xenzag, Jan 20 2007


smell this croissant + and the suggestion that it be called rankognition
-- xenzag, Jan 20 2007


Probably something like this going on in the animal world already.
-- normzone, Jan 21 2007


I can see it now, "PRIVATE! Drop and give me 20!".. "Hold on a sec...SNIFF..uh...General? No umm captain?"
-- Jscotty, Jan 22 2007


I can see some of the raunchier officers using this to trick others into taking a deep breath at just the right moment, perhaps soon after finishing a microwave bean burrito....
-- 21 Quest, Jan 22 2007


And then there's the problem of being accused of being a social climber if you uncontrollably fart in a friendly group. If the nastier smells indicate higher rank then there might be a fight to claim who farted.
-- JSand, Jan 25 2007


//an E-1 must wear Axe Kilo//

There's no part of that phrase that I understand.
-- angel, Jan 25 2007


What [angel] said. And you know what? I'm sooooo glad. Life must be kinda tedious if you're always having to worry about who's higher up or lower down than you on some arbitrary scale.
-- squeak, Jan 25 2007


Sorry, angel. Let me explain. E-1 is the 1st (lowest) rank in the Enlisted side of the military (the other side is the Officers). Axe is a brand of spray deodorant, and Kilo is the name of a particular scent in that line. Other scents in the Axe line include Clix, Touch, Tsunami, Unlimited, Orion, Phoenix, Groove, Boost, and more that I can't think of right now. Considering that there are exactly 9 ranks in the Enlisted force structure, and I just rattled off 9 scents from the Axe brand alone without even thinking, it shouldn't be hard to implement this.
-- 21 Quest, Jan 26 2007


Urrggh! You smell rank!
-- theleopard, Jan 26 2007



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