Response: What’s up with Febreze, anyway?
April 3, 2007 by Amy George
Filed under Fragrances
Eric Eggertsone asked:
Has North America gone insane, or is it just the TV shows I watch? Every third commercial is for a product either by Febreze, or with Febreze added to it.
Are we so afraid of smelling the real world that we have to coat it with industrial strength scent bursts designed to nauseate even someone like me with a bad dust allergy and a constantly clogged nose?
I hope you are able to shed light on the Febreze conspiracy, and its insidious replacement of true scents with its overpowering, cloying version of “nice” smells.
(rant over)
Welcome to b5 media!
Eric,
Thanks for such a warm welcome. I realized that this would be a long response so I’m just using it as an entry instead. I’m not sure about the Febreze thing either. I don’t watch TV (not because I don’t like it, but just because I don’t have enough time) so I don’t know about the commercials but I shop and I read print/internet media a lot. There is this weird, WASP-related thing with homemakers and scents. The first generation in scent, I guess, was the Glade Plug-in (an innovative idea, but marketed specifically to cover up ‘problem’ scents rather than enhance your scent-vironment [totally a word]). I guess bad smells are the same thing as dirt, and I’m sure you know how white suburban people are about dirt (in their houses, on their person, on their cars, etc). This is nothing new – practically since the dawn of the industrial era we’ve been trying to CLEAN up everything yet making a big dirty mess of it all anyway.
So couple this fear of dirt and bad smells with ever more working moms and dads too tired and too busy to really CLEAN house to get rid of the smells, and you end up with shortcuts like Febreze, I guess. Procter and Gamble knows its target demographic inside and out, and no doubt that group told them they want their houses to smell CLEAN. A lot of people have problems with what they call ‘clean’ smells (detergent/soapy). I used to have to use only unscented detergent, but somehow I grew out of that. I guess scent is kind of like light – To some people, darkness is bad. But it’s simply the absence of light. I’d sure rather have darkness (or scentlessness) than a whole mishmash of scents assaulting me.
Same with body scents – A clean human body has almost no scent. Obviously we all know how stinky our bodies can be. But there is obviously less and less tolerance of body scent of any kind, and a pathological need to cover up any kind of offensive natural scent with a synthetic one. A great example (and maybe one that is completely lost on my XY readers) is the scented/deodorant tampon. Personally, I find that the scent of the tampons is far more disgusting than anything it’s supposed to cover up. But then again, if they make you think you have bad breath, they’re going to sell more mouthwash, right? I guess it’s the same idea. And then there’s that whole obsession with antibacterial this and that.
Seriously, if we were all so disgusting, we’d have died off long ago, failing to reproduce because we were so intolerant of each other’s scent. We know that quite the opposite happened, actually. Scent is tied to romance and sex in ways we may never understand. Pheromones are still a largely unknown factor, and some scientists have hinted that the reason people smell “good” to us is because they possess genes that we lack. I find that damn fascinating.
Thanks for mentioning ‘real world’ scents. There’s a real market out there for natural and organic scents that is only beginning to be tapped. I think a lot of people have finally had it up to here with chemical fragrances. There are also a lot of very well-trained noses out there, and they demand quality, which is sometimes hard to come by dealing with natural fragrance materials. So take heart. In addition, there are traditional/commercial perfumers using synthetic products but making scents that really invoke natural situations and pushing the envelope with what smells ‘good’.
Gosh, it seems like I can’t make a post without talking about ‘markets’ or ‘marketing’. I think I missed a career choice somewhere. In short, there’s a difference between scents that enhance and scents that cover up. I plan to address only the former category, and leave the latter to Target commercials, unless I have a really good reason to care about Febreze. Thanks for making me take sides on this issue!
Hi,
Here is the deal with febreez (at least for me). I don’t use scented products. No air fresheners, no scented cleaners. I am very “scent-sitive”. I keep a clean house using soap and water, and vinegar.
However a couple of years ago, I had a house guest stay with me whose version of personal hygiene was not up to my own. After a few days of him staying on my couch, I had the problem of how to “de-scent”. Even burning incense in my living room, couldnt make the smell go away. Cant burn incense everyday. Wish I could, but I have issues with scent (and smoke)
Then someone gave me a bottle of fabric spray febreez. The scent was light (it didnt give me a headache, like other products)…and it didnt ruin my couch. And after a few times of spraying it, I no longer had a fragrant sofa.
Of course, I have to use it while airing out my house, all windows and doors have to be open. But because of the saving of my furniture, I will use the product again.
Anyway, I am a fan.
Those are mighty extenuating circumstances. I’m glad it saved your couch! My issue is more with the ads that make you suspect other people think you or your house smell bad.
Laura:
As with all things, moderation is the key. I’m okay with masking or removing the scent of wet dog, or grungy house guest. It’s the view I see in the commercials of the homemaker spraying her room with scent, and standing under the spray to catch the “fresh scent” that disturbs me. I think that kind of person is addicted to an unnatural kind of fragrance.
I seem incapable of spelling my name correctly!
I haven’t seen the commercial. Guess I need to watch more television, to know what you guys are talking about. I can’t even imagine someone standing under the scent spray so she smells like house cleaner.
While febreez isn’t awful smelling, there are other scents that I prefer.
Going to see if I can find that commercial. I am slightly horrified now.
Another question – isn’t the original febreze unscented? I think it’s one thing to remove offensive scents, especially on uncleanable items like couches. It’s another to mask them or to inject ’scent overload’ into an otherwise scentless, pleasant environment.
Febreze is not to make your house smell “clean” in real life. It is to eliminate odors that you can’t get rid of — for example, my old neighbors had cats and did not clean them. The smell seeped into my apartment, and I used Febreze to counter the smell. My current neighbors smoke like chimneys. Again, I use Febreze to make the smell a little less nauseating.
Even after cleaning, some people prefer the smell of an air freshener to say, the chemicals used to clean. Another valid use. There is always a difference between commercials and real-world application, so don’t worry for the lady on TV inhaling aerosole fumes — nobody does that in real life.
As far as perfume, I wish more people wore scent. I spend 45 minutes on public transit to and from work, 5 days a week, and I have found (especially in the summer), people smell ridiculous. I also have one of the poorest senses of smell of anyone I know, so I feel bad for people like my mom who can smell things from a football field away.