Boing Boing » smells

Dog finds whale vomit

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:10:21 +0000

A man from Morecambe believes his dog has found a rare piece of whale vomit while walking on the beach. ... Mr Wilman said: "When I picked it up and smelled it I put it back down again and I thought 'urgh'.

French stench reaches London

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:31:14 +0000

Reuters: "A cloud of harmless gas smelling of sweat and rotten eggs leaked out of a chemicals factory in northwest France and wafted across the English Channel as far as London on Tuesday."

Pizza Hut perfume

David Pescovitz — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:14:23 +0000

Pizza Hut Canada produced a limited-edition perfume. Apparently, Eau de Pizza Hut has "“top notes of freshly baked, hand-tossed dough." I guess it beats smelling like pepperoni or anchovies. (TODAY, via NextDraft)

Smells like shopping

David Pescovitz — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:56:14 +0000

Expect America's malls to soon become orange-scented. A new study by Washington State University researchers suggests that "simple scents" -- they tested orange -- can stimulate a bump in retail sales. This is compared to no smell or "complex scents" like an orange-basil-green tea blend used in this study. From WSU:

The researchers say the (simple) scent is more easily processed, freeing the customer’s mind to focus on shopping. But when that "bandwidth” is unavailable customers don’t perform cognitive tasks as effectively, says (Eric) Spangenberg, (dean of the College of Business)...

"WSU researchers tie simple scent to increased retail sales"