What we’re about to discuss is what I’d call a “Goldblum Product” — something where its creators were so excited that they could, they never stopped to consider whether or not they even should. You’ve no doubt seen cartoon visions of the future where a character’s TV emits the smell of whatever he’s watching (“PU, a skunk just came on screen! Jane, stop this crazy thing!”) A company called Elevated Perceptions claims they’ve invented this very technology and will unleash it upon the world this fall if they are not stopped.
They call it MovieScent, and it’s a device that spritzes scents from bottles each time a corresponding scene appears on your TV. “The process begins with its state-of-the-art adaptor that captures audio in real-time through HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack, or Optical audio cable connections,” they say. “Audio is then processed by proprietary AI technology, which identifies key cues and events within the content. The AI-identified scent is then released from the scent atomizer, creating an instantaneous and synchronized sensory experience.”
Since each scent needs its own bottle. there’s a limit to what scenes MovieScent can enhance, but the six that come with the device cover the widest range of scenes: “Ocean,” “Fresh Cut Grass,” “Restaurant,” “Forest,” “Storm” and finally “Clean Air,” the essential sixth bottle that emits a blank scent at the end so your living room won’t stink for hours afterward.
Other scents will be sold separately and include “Fire,” “Jungle,” “Zombie,” “New Car” and “Blood.” Blood?? This is the problem those cartoons foretold: there are some things you watch that you don’t want to know what they smell like.
Elevated Perceptions plans to sell MovieScent for $179.99 this holiday season through Amazon and their own website. If that sticker is too much for you, there are other, lower-fi methods of smelling what you see on screen…
What we have here are a bunch of Stranger Things-themed scented candles that Bath & Body Works introduced last month: Eleven’s Waffles, Steve’s Scoops, Argyle’s Pizza and Hopper’s Coffee. An identical “article” went up on a few websites including TVLine, where I wrote in the comments, “if you’re going to post obvious sponsored content, you should label it as such. I don’t get this anyway; is there really a demand to smell Hopper’s coffee?” I returned the following day to find I’d been banned from making comments for a week AND the article had disappeared.
I would imagine it’s rather difficult to draw things from a show like this that would smell good. I couldn’t help but notice the most iconic locale that comes to mind did not have a candle in this spread.
Oh, wait.
The original page is gone, but TVLine put up another ad-post today hyping an actual, three-wick candle that promises to make your house smell like The Upside Down. Who on Earth is going to dare to light this candle? It’s on sale — wonder why!
The same page offers something even more bonkers — Upside-Down-branded hand soap and sanitizer. Do they work the opposite way — do they make your hands dirtier? What is going on?
Anyway, point is, if you really really want to smell your TV, there are plenty of people out there with too much VC investor cash who are willing to grant that dream. At least for the time being.
