Consumer Terrorism, or Air Pollution for Purchase

ScentAir is the latest gimmick in consumer marketing. They call themselves smell consultants. Here is one of their marketing slogans:

Add More Excitement to Your Crowd Experience! 

 

It seems it is their mission to poison people with toxic chemicals worldwide and on a grand scale. Currently they are operating in 105 countries with over 40,000 deployments. Deployments? Isn't deployment a word used during wartime to describe military maneuvers? Fitting. It's no longer enough for the corporate machine to legally poison individuals with perfumes and colognes. If a little is good [for profit], then much more is much better [for much more profit]. To hell with health. Very American.

The trend began with perfumed clothing, then expanded to whole retail outlets in hopes of higher profits. The target is now large gatherings of people: arenas, shopping centers, casinos and stadiums. Where ever people congregate in mass numbers. Sound familiar?  Like a terrorist operation? Legalized terrorism. Here are some of ScentAir's deployments, clients, companies and locations and their choice of stink:

Barclays Center in New York smells like their sponsor Calvin Klein. 

The Edward Jones Dome or St. Louis Rams' stadium smells like Cotton Candy.

Bloomingdale's smells like Baby Powder, Lilac and Coconut, except at Christmas when they smell like Sugar Cookie, Chocolate and Evergreen.

Hard Rock Hotel smells like Sugar Cookies, Waffle Cones, and Ocean.

City of Dreams casino in Macau smells like Rainforest.

Coors smells like something called Ice Show, a mix of peppermint and vanilla. (What? They don't want to smell like beer?)

Times Square in the middle of Manhattan in New York smells like chocolate...right outside the Hershey's store. On the street. "It's not really chocolate. It's nose chocolate."

NOSE CHOCOLATE?

REALLY?

Other stinkers include the Westin Hotel and Resorts, Anytime Fitness, Jimmy Choo Shoes, Saks Fifth Avenue, the Children's Museum in Indianapolis, and Florida Hospital. Yep, that's not a typo...a scented hospital. No wonder I have no confidence in our medical system.

ScentAir boasts over four billion individual enduring impressions. In addition to impressions, pretty words like scent and fragrance are used in abundance on their website along with relaxation and belonging. The words POISON, POLLUTION, or DEATH are not found anywhere.  No mention of ingredients used to make this purposeful air pollution. No mention of toxic chemicals. No mention of the health effects of these impressions on at least 15% to 33% of the population. No mention of asthma, anaphylactic shock, depression, joint pain, brain fog, migraines, or illness. No warning label. There is one claim of "scent studies" implying serious scientific research although the focus is entertainment rather than meaningful public education. Great advertising if your target is the unquestionably stupid. I wonder when they'll figure out how to puff toxic chemicals through a computer if someone clicks on their website?

 

Why don't company managers and consumers question how chemically-contaminated air might affect their health and the health of everyone around them? Do they care or is ignorance to blame? And what about the innocent bystanders? Are they warned in advance? Do they get a choice whether to breathe clean or polluted air? Is there a disclaimer to read prior to purchasing event tickets, making reservations, or buying memberships? Do they get their tickets, reservations, or memberships refunded if they can't breathe? Are their medical bills paid by the host company if they are rushed to the hospital with asthma attacks or anaphylactic shock?

But there is still hope! People have been complaining about ScentAir, in Las Vegas, anyway:

The use of air fresheners in Las Vegas businesses HVAC, are creating barriers under Title III of the ADA. The businesses refused to address requests for accommodations resulting in the US Department of Justice filings.

Hooray Americans with Disabilities Act! One of the businesses was Abercrombie & Fitch, a retail business known for offending many. Not only are they perfumed, but they have in the past marketed Nazi clothing and have stated they cater only to "popular" and "beautiful" people so if you are overweight, uncool or just plain ugly, don't bother. They claimed no wrong doing, of course. Several other businesses, mostly casinos, claimed it wasn't their fault and the customer should contact the distributor, ScentAir, directly. Wow. Talk about lack of responsibility. Passing the buck. They don't think they are responsible for hiring a company to create the problem? It amazes me if up to 33 % of the population is negatively affected by chemically-based scents and if these businesses are dependent on having and keeping customers, why wouldn't they figure out toxic impressions aren't good for business? Logic 101. Is the ambiance worth it?


It is good ScentAir lists some of their clients. This is helpful so we know who, where and what to avoid.

 

The world gets smaller every day.