How Sweet It Is

Just over a year ago, I remember sitting in the lunchroom at work, reading People magazine, when I came across this ad.

"What? I'm supposed to peel this off and lick it?" I asked myself.

Intrigued as I was, it was not my copy of People magazine to violate and I was too poor at the time to invest in my own. I figured that this campaign would run across multiple magazines and I'd be able to pick it by the time my pay check rolled around.

Turns out it that one in particular was a one-shot deal. Bummer.

If it's any consolation, I read an article in the Toronto Star yesterday about First Flavor - the company behind that Welch's ad - will be bringing their tasty technology to newspapers.

It reminded me of arguably my favourite seminar at Ad Week in New York, where they discussed how to market using all 5 senses. Taste isn't the first sense you associate with advertising, but this type of application seems super cool. In the article, they even mention how they made an intentionally bad taste tab that tasted like cigarettes to give to kids in order to deter them from smoking. Hypothetically speaking though, couldn't that work the other way around as well and really you just gave some kids the gateway to cigarettes?

The article also reminded me of how varied in advertising can be in terms of media selection and job opportunities. The number of options available to advertisers is growing all the time, and something like taste is still in its infancy. Where could it go from here? As a prospective job-seeker, there's so much more out there for you besides working at a full-service agency. You could specialize in...taste marketing with First Flavor. Sounds cool to me. The other place like this which I'd love to take a crack at someday is SnapTell, who specialize in image recognition based mobile marketing.

With all that said, how much longer do we have to wait before smell-o-vision goes mainstream?