Actually, it takes a lot to make me REALLY tired of wet things. I come from a fairly dry place, all things considered, and I guess because of that I'm pretty fond of rain. Another topic for another time, though.
The idea that I really had in mind was more about where some "good" ideas ever come from. Some of the ideas out there kind of boggle me.
Example? Well, this morning when I was putting on my antiperspirant I couldn't help but wonder who it was that decided it would be a good idea for a woman's armpit to smell like pear. I mean, I like pear (obviously, or I wouldn't have bought that scent) and the perfume they used for this particular product is pleasantly pear-y, but it isn't the most obvious smell for an armpit.
Of course, the most obvious smell for an armpit is the one a person's trying to avoid by using antiperspirant in the first place, but apparently modern society isn't terribly accepting of that. Still... pear? Or cucumber, which has also graced my pits at various times?
I should say here that I have a tendency to aim towards identifiable scents for personal products because at least I know what they should smell like, as opposed to the nebulosity of things like Summer Day or Fresh Breeze or Evening Shower. Things like that make me think that someone just had the idea to cover up the fact that they had no idea what scent they'd just created by giving it a vaguely pleasant name. It's like calling a sports drink Blue because they're not really sure what the flavour is but they know they've got a lot of blue food colouring on hand.
Speaking of which...
Blue raspberry. Who on earth decided that was a good idea? Raspberries are red, raspberry juice is red, and anyone who knows what a raspberry is will be much more likely to identify its flavour with the colour red than blue. Still, go down the juice aisle and you'll find multiple variations on the blue raspberry theme. Especially juices that are aimed at the kid market. One would think that a child who likes raspberry would want it to be red and that any other colour would have as much success as those purple and green novelty ketchups they introduced a few years back (don't believe me on that one? Well, according to this article it was back in December 2000, so I wouldn't blame you if you don't remember that particular short-lived fad), but it seems that bluing raspberry isn't as morally troubling as greening ketchup.
Anyway. Before anyone says anything I do, of course, realise that companies spend big bucks just to find the things that might make us buy their products. So I guess the question is: why do we think it would be a great idea for armpits to smell like pear or raspberries to be blue?
And really? As to that... I'm sure I have no idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment