Sunday, December 9th, 2012
Love the smell of pizza but really, a pizza perfume? When I heard about Eau de Pizza Hut, I thought the story was something reported by the “Onion.” But there it was on Pizza Hut’s facbook page. The post had over 500 comments and 8,575 likes. The comments, mostly single word replies, ranged from elation to sarcasm to insults. Me? I really don’t think I’m in a position to make comments without actually smelling the perfume and experiencing it first hand.
Pizza Hut isn’t the first food fragrance. Burger King introduced “FLAME” in 2009. Not sure if it’s still around and don’t really care. Although I like the smell of beef over an open flame I’m not sure I’d spray or rub it on my body. This is how the fragrance was described by Burger King. “The WHOPPER® sandwich is America’s Favorite burger. FLAME™ by BK® captures the essence of that love and gives it to you. Behold the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame broiled meat.”
The release of promotional perfumes are merely cute PR ploys to grab some media attention. But food smells are big business. There are companies that specialize in scenting systems. From the koolfog website, “Fragrances can be matched to almost anything including your favorite food. When people smell food they get hungry and subtle ‘suggestions’ through fragrance can help spur sales of almost anything.” koolfog produces scents like Apple Pie and Cinnamon Bun, Sage & Onion and Danish Blue Cheese.
I know that when I smell food or even hear someone talk about food I get hungry. When Amy Wenham posted, “I WANT IT!!! Oh my god! It’s my dream to smell like pizza! I want to BE the pizza!” I had to stop reading.
Apparently, the testing group was all Italians.