fragrance
showing 16 - 20 of 2000 results found.
Gladwell's story is also a historical story, and as it was written in 1999, it goes no further. Fragrance, on the other hand, is a timeless, reptilian-brain manipulation far from the codes of decades. The interrelation of fragrance, beauty, and even vitamins, is an interesting one. A television commercial for the shampoo Pantene actually references "Pro Vitamins." A more generic use of the term is something like a precursor to a vitamin, although the corporate behemoth Pantene may not be referring to a precursor but their own proprietary invention.
Indeed, the use of fragrance is almost an antidote to fickle signs and proprietary inventions. Fragrance taps into a recognition that is very deep and very old. Some women think the fragrance of coconut represents beauty and is beautifully tropical. "It is a vitamin to the soul," writes Katy Carter, "of one trapped in the death of winter." Therefore, some women would feel compelled to buy beauty products such as a shampoo with a coconut fragrance, not only for left-brain reasons such as a good price and the presence of hair vitamins, but also due to a grunting, cerebellum-deep invocation of the sense of smell.
Even given a scathingly critical spotlight upon the "ad man," many people smart enough to know they are being manipulated carry on forming loyalties to products. The blissfully witty Robert Forster has many good things to say about the Redken line of hair products. He does not mention their shampoos' scents, but his vivid turn of phrase is itself full of beauty, vitamins and fragrance. Forster says good things about Robert Redford, who "lives in the hills of Colorado, so he has access to clear, clean mountain water." There is nothing like satire to wash out an overbearing fragrance, detoxify your body of excessive vitamins, or rejig the tumblers in the combination lock of corporate beauty.
Forster's 1987 piece from Debris magazine comes just shy of alluding back to a famous L'Oreal slogan: "because I'm worth it." Forster says, in essence, that Redken is more expensive, but worth it. So the use of humor, satire, and even dissonance, eventually joins the likes of fragrance, price and code as a way to make people buy. Forster is effective in his sales pitch because he is witty and does know better. You don't get the feeling that he would be shy about telling you candidly that a particular beauty product was swill, and this is the source of his credibility.
To be politically strident and shrill is generally not the best way to win friends and influence people. The rebuttal to criticism of beauty's ills - animal testing, for instance, and superficiality itself - is often to say "look around, the world is fine. People deserve a little box of empowerment when they are tired from work." To tear apart beauty and fragrance is to be a killjoy. However, there are real harms marbled deep with the fun. Corporate spin actively diverts attention from its products' drawbacks. And the most powerful vitamins are knowledge and information.