Perfume Advertising and the Senses

This paper examines perfume advertising within the overall context of theoretical approaches to the study of smell. Pointing out that smell is marked by a paucity of language, it proceeds to examine how smell is represented in perfume advertisements. Based on an analysis of more than 250 ads worldwide, the paper asks if there are any consistent relations between language, colours and smell materials, as well as between models’ poses, seasons, and classes of perfume (floral, oriental, woody, and so on). It proceeds to survey a number of writings linking colour with smell, and suggests that olfactory marketing should, perhaps, be more consistent in its linking of these two domains in advertising and packaging