Smell, I am told, is the most evocative of the senses.
A while back I caught a scent on the breeze, carried no doubt from some young lady out yonder, that was the perfume of a girl I once spent a wonderful summer with. I felt happy.
I had been having a really bad day that day but I felt really good when I got home that day and went to bed with calm, peaceful and happy memories.
Would it not be a lovely gift to a friend who is feeling low? I propose a company that can subtly deliver scent to an individual so they be reminded of a happier time. Maybe employees can walk past the 'target' wearing a perfume of that scent or small, short lived scent bombs could be secreted in their workplace air conditioning. This could be what you get the man who has everything (but feels sometimes like he has nothing.)-- harderthanjesus, Nov 24 2004 "Who's frying baloney?" http://www.demetero...index.php?cPath=1_8Demeter, a company that sells smells. [Amos Kito, Nov 25 2004] I like it, but the tricky part would be knowing what scent would be the right trigger. Easy if your friend has a long departed love who's scent you knew. More difficult in other cases.-- Worldgineer, Nov 24 2004 I was sure this would have a grilled cheese sandwich reference in it.-- jutta, Nov 24 2004 Yeah, that's the difficulty [Worldgineer]. You'd have to have either known the person a long time or have heard them mention the honeysuckles, roses, glue factory etc. that occured in this fond memory of theirs.-- harderthanjesus, Nov 24 2004 Many cities and towns have a distinctive smell. If you know the person has fond memories of a vacation in a certain town, that scent might cheer him up.
Or have smells of natural places, such as seasides, forests, or meadows. Those may be easier, since you can find similar aromas in canned air fresheners.-- Amos Kito, Nov 25 2004 After all the jacks are in their boxes and the clowns have all gone to bed You can hear happiness staggering on down the street footsteps dressed in red And the wind whispers Mary
[Ah, memories of a misspent youth......]-- normzone, Nov 25 2004 Oh yes.-- Machiavelli, Nov 25 2004 Altogether now, "And they call the wind Maria..."-- DrCurry, Nov 25 2004 Has anyone ever, ahem, used the latrine the same day as you've gutted a deer or skinned a raccoon? If so you oughta know what I'm talking about.
If I'm not mistaken, the interpretation of smell has quite a bit to do with frame of reference; that is, if you've recently smelled the bowels of something, or any particular scent, anything your nasal receptors pick up will be skewed by said scent, and your brain will interpret whatever you're smelling as whatever is most familiar in that particular frame of reference.
What I'm getting at is, if you're hungry for donuts, frying grease will likely smell like donuts. To attempt to market a specific set of fragrances that are designed to trigger a certain response from sense and memory would likely be a long and difficult exercise in psychology and chemistry.
A particular smell could almost certainly act as a strong anchor to an experience, true, but the whole "scent is the strongest sense tied to memory" is really a ploy for whoever makes Axe cologne to rake in more money. Never believe anyone who's trying to sell you something whether they're consiously aware of it or not.
Personally, nearly any perfume or fragrance that is supposed to smell like a sugary fruit always smells like apples to me, no matter what. Go figure.-- green-jezus, Nov 25 2004 DKNY's Be Delicious perfume smells like green apples. Thought you might want to know, [jezus].-- Machiavelli, Nov 25 2004 My friend thinks steer manure fertilizer smells like chocolate. Go figure.-- Machiavelli, Nov 25 2004 Smelly wind? Ew, it smells like [bobad].-- not_only_but_also, Nov 25 2004 Ms. Ill Wind could not for the life of her account for her failed call girl career.-- FarmerJohn, Nov 25 2004 She needs to find her Mr NoGood then. Unless it's the merest hint, perfume tends to make my nose twitch and start me sneezing so a fishy from me I'm afraid.-- DrBob, Nov 25 2004 Certain disinfectant smells give me falshbacks to various episodes of surgery so I can vouch for the power of smells to evoke memory.-- oneoffdave, Nov 25 2004 The smell of fishbones remind me of many of my ideas.-- harderthanjesus, Nov 25 2004 And yet, as I write this, I see nary a fishbone on your profile. Maybe the smell of the "delete" button would be more reminiscent of said ideas?-- AfroAssault, Nov 27 2004 All my scores were all lost in the crash I'll have you know. If you read the annos you'll see the disapproval that went with them. I wear my failures like badges of honour. Or dishonour.-- harderthanjesus, Nov 27 2004 I love the smell of WD40, reminds me of my cheerfull and mildy mischievous youth. Wasp filled summers fiddling with 5cc petrol engines (before I discovered girls). I experienced horror when my grandmother wore the same perfume as my first 'proper' girlfriend. Very mixed emotions. Bleurgh! Make it go away.-- weedy, Nov 27 2004 Never tell your enemies that, this idea could just as easily be used for wickedness.-- harderthanjesus, Nov 28 2004 My sister deliberately stitched me up when we were sharing a flat. She knew that I liked the smell of Opium so deliberately used it in the toilet as an air freshener. The result was that when nice girl walked past wearing the scent all I could think of was 'smelly toilet'.-- gnomethang, Nov 28 2004 Opium the perfume...right?-- harderthanjesus, Nov 28 2004 Very funny, [jutta].
The wind smells like (long rancid) sharp cheddar on toast.-- bristolz, Nov 28 2004 Great idea, [harderthanjesus]. I just still don't understand your nickname (sorry, had to say it and never had a chance until now). Bun anyways.-- Pericles, Nov 28 2004 It's in my profile. It's a quote fragment from a comic. Really, I just like the nonsensicality of it.
I think I just made that word up.-- harderthanjesus, Nov 29 2004 Oh, no no no, I wasn't offended by your nickname [harderthanjesus]. I'm not a christian or anything. I am just curious as a cat. Which comic was it taken from? -if you don't mind sharing, that is--- Pericles, Nov 29 2004 Oooh. I'm not sure about the details of it, but I love the general idea. You could just ask someone their favourite smell or one they remember from childhood/happy adolescence and use that one. I mean, if you're going to go to these lengths for a person, you probably know them well enough to ask them their favourite colour, and then food, and then smell. Slip it into the conversation, all subtle-like.
Anyway, a croissant that smells vaguely of Mary for you.-- bookends, May 05 2006 random, halfbakery