From NewScientist:
A scent-generating device being tested by the UK internet service provider Telewest Broadband could soon allow internet users to transmit aromas of their choice across the internet... The British company suggests that the system could be used to enhance a holiday web site by generating the scent of sun tan lotion and the ocean or liven up a grocery site with fresh bread and fruit smells."Our sense of smell is directly connected to our emotions," says Kate Fox, social anthropologist and co-director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford. "Smells trigger very powerful and deep-seated emotional responses, and this additional element to the internet will enhance users’ online experience by adding that crucial third dimension."
Just one more item for the brand/corporate identity manual; one more item in the brand manager's tool kit. Crazy stuff.
What Telewest is doing should be lauded, if it does not trigger off an increase interest in aromatheraphy, then perhaps it could spark off an upturn in sales of giant picture screens for added enhancement to accompany the perfume filled room! Probably a paradigm swift for avid surfers!
Posted by: Terry Yap | February 23, 2004 at 07:04 AM