he aroma of sweaty feet, armpits, dirty laundry, and soiled diapers are all now highly sought-after scents, as companies, 
pursuing smelly-branding have all lined up, excited for having exclusive rights to aromas which they can use to bring odor to their lifeless products. Like, peachy-smelly-bras or chocolate-smelly-underpants and so on.
All of a sudden, there is a rush to secure a copyright on any distinct smell from our daily lives, and exclusively use it in conjunction with a branded product or a service. Like the smell of bread in a hot oven at the bakery to be used by a sandwich maker, or like the smell of Gouda cheese and the notorious whiff of dirty socks, to be exclusively used by a shoe maker.
So here it is. This is what happened to the most recent aggressive attempts by Paris-based company, Eden Sarl, who tried very hard to get the smell of strawberries exclusively copyrighted for products of soap, stationery, leather goods and clothing.
Initially, EU Trademark agencies refused their earlier applications, so they took it to their regional second-highest courts. They too, rejected Eden Sarl’s application. So what’s all the fuss?
The smell of armpits, dirty laundry, and soiled diapers are all now highly sought-after scents, as companies, pursuing smelly-branding have all lined up, excited for having exclusive rights to aromas which they can use to bring odor to their lifeless products. Like, peachy-smelly-bras or chocolate-smelly-underpants and so on.
There are some not so pungent odors, like apples, bananas and oranges, but all the attempts for exclusive use have failed.
This brand new frontier is said to be giving a big boost to odorless products. The general idea is that by using smell as an exclusive sensory tickler, now considered by many, a stroke of branding genius, marketers can bring life to their already dead brands. Sounds very sensory, but in reality, it’s time to smell the coffee.
According to BBC reports, the EU courts stated “Strawberries do not have just one smell. This means that the different varieties of strawberries produce significantly different smells.” Surely, we now need some wine tasters and keen noses.
On the strawberry issues, the company wanted this aroma exclusively for their product lines, just like the way some companies attempted to claim exclusive corporate colors, which indecently holds no water either and no longer a winning case, as there are only few colors and billions of companies and products. Blue is no longer exclusive to IBM, but equally used by ten thousand other computer companies. What worked in the fifties, as an exclusive color idea, is no longer valid in the post-millennium market. Don’t you smell trouble here?
As part of a new craze for smelly-branding, hip brand managers are desperately trying to project a sensory message with an exclusive aroma. Checkbooks are being scented, clothes are pre-perfumed, and cars are wildly sprayed. Now you know why massage oils are scented, and how aromatherapy became so popular.
Any brand can develop any original fragrance and use it just like any fashion brands have already done so successfully, but to say that the smell of the ocean and sea salt is exclusively copyrighted to a tire company is really having the creative noses buried in proverbial cow manure! Phew, that’s some aroma.
Leave a Reply