The Smell of Disappointment

Febreze air, carpet, and furniture freshener has as always tried to have funny yet convincing commercials. They usually consist of a skit of a family smelling unpleasant areas in their home, and the mom coming to save the day with Febreze. People have often complained that these commercial are too “corny” and unreal, which is a surprise to me because I didn’t know Febreze affected people’s lives so deeply. To make their product more believable, Febreze has taken a different approach.

Their new commercials consist of them approaching real people on the street and putting them to a smell test. Each commercial takes different people to an extremely filthy place including a gross kitchen and a dirty apartment. Febreze is sprayed throughout the place attempting to disguise the real setting of the place. The people are blindfolded and ask to describe what they smell. Most of them describe the smell as fresh and inviting and they are unpleasantly surprised when they are un-blindfolded. The people are completely thrown off by the appearance of the place and can’t believe that Febreze made it smell so great.

I personally like the commercials, I find them entertaining. The reactions seem believable. The only thing that bothers me is that real people agree to be blindfolded and taken to an unknown location. The fact that they trust complete strangers makes me wonder if it’s real or not. But some people are not worried about whether the commercial is real or not, they are just plain offended. In one of the commercials when the people are un-blindfolded, their response to the disgusting place is “Oh my God.” Apparently this has offended some Christians. They were very upset that the people in the commercial were “using God’s name in vain.” One blogging site encouraged people to write letters to Procter and Gamble urging them to change the commercial. Febreze did put out a new commercial where the people’s response was not “Oh my God,” but I don’t think they ever stop showing the other one. Either way, the Christians were relieved and unaware.

Febreze tried to change their “corny” image to please some, and ends up offending others with their “real” image.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btyzuCEPc9M&feature=pyv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0mXHph1-gc&feature=relmfu

Amanda Sturges