City officials remove new cookie-scented ads from San Francisco bus shelters

We love the smell of freshly baked cookies as much as the next guy, but smelling cookies at a bus stop is probably unlikely to get us to buy more milk (especially those of us who dig the soy variety). Still, that didn't stop Arcade Marketing, (employed by the California Milk Processor Board), to take the "Got Milk?" ads to a new level with an automated whiff of cookies inside bus shelters in San Francisco. However, the ads, which debuted Monday in SF's Union Square, Financial District, and Nob Hill neighborhoods, were ordered to be taken down by city officials on Tuesday. The city's Municipal Transportation Agency, which presides over the bus shelters, cited public complaints with regard to asthma and respiratory diseases by local activists (namely, the Environmental Health Network of California). That's it EHNC, we're not sending you any holiday cookies this year.

[Via Strange New Products]

[chase @ Dec 6th 2006 9:26AM]

dammit. i was hoping that would set trends and eventually i would walk outside and just smell chocolate chip deliciousness.

[JRA219psu @ Dec 5th 2006 11:35PM]

mmmmmmmmm cookies...outside my door!!?? how freakin sweet would that have been. well, there goes another one. thanks alot freakin RIAA er ahem I mean the EHNC.

Oh and if that last sentence made any sense to you I would recommend seeing a doctor as soon as possible as you may be crazy.

[derek @ Dec 5th 2006 11:50PM]

You go EHNC, cracking down on those scratch and sniffs! You guys are a blessing to asthma sufferers everywhere. (Them DRIVING to the store is more harmful than a SCENTED PAPER THING, if it is even harmless at all). How much do you suppose they were bribed?

[Matt @ Dec 5th 2006 11:54PM]

wont homeless people eat the posters?

[- @ Dec 6th 2006 12:24AM]

I really don't think people who are THAT sensitive to smell ever leave their bubble to board a crowded bus, but I guess that's not the point. Previous news reports had many passerby unable to identify the smell and the ones that identified it as cookies did not associate cookies with milk. Does anyone really eat cookies and milk together? I tried it as a kid when saw it on TV and didn't understand why the two went together.

[ECM @ Dec 6th 2006 12:44AM]

Oh man, when I was a kid Chips Ahoy (not the soft ones) and milk were awesome. Been a long time since those days, tho.

[jbulava @ Dec 6th 2006 12:51AM]

I was wondering when this was going to make its way into marketing! Disney World has been using that technique for years...you think that's real hot dogs or fresh baked goods as you walk down Main Street?? Hey, it made me buy the food.

[geekb @ Dec 6th 2006 12:57AM]

Ah yes, because cookies are the most offensive smell at the average SF bus shelter. Luckily it's hard to smell while fleeing imminent MUNIcide.

[Michael @ Dec 6th 2006 2:11AM]

What does this have to do with gadgets?

//this is not fark.com

[JjeSs. @ Dec 6th 2006 3:03AM]

YAY SOYMILK

[fgdfgdfdfgdfg @ Dec 6th 2006 2:21AM]

Could someone explain to me why one would advertise milk using the smell of cookies? Huh?

Isn't that like printing an advertisement for a car, in the hope that people would buy more shampoo? HUH?!?

[GJP303 @ Dec 6th 2006 6:53AM]

because milk and cookies just go together. You couldn't have a poster that smells like the practically scentless milk, but could have it have the scent of cookies. This is what they want>> (someones thoughts) Hmmm... that poster smells like cookies, I like cookies and want some. Maybe I'll have a nice big glass of milk with it. (two days later) Now that I'm obsessed with milk & cookies I need more milk. (go to the store and buy some more milk.... just what they want)

[andyo @ Dec 6th 2006 2:35AM]

Environmental Health Network of California, or... NAMBLA.

Seriously, everyone is complaining about anything nowadays. Get a freakin' grip. Complain about the important stuff, like this one time I was at the library browsing my e-mail and this guy sat at the next computer and farted such a horrendous smell, and even pointed my way. I'm starting my own Citizens Against Public Farting, or... NAMBLA.

[Othello @ Dec 6th 2006 2:50AM]

Don't feel too bad. These just started going up in NYC, so if you really want some bus-cookie goodness, just move over here!

[Richard @ Dec 6th 2006 3:25AM]

well, i guess we'll see how it does in Sacramento. It's coming here next. Or so I read.

[Diddle @ Dec 6th 2006 4:15AM]

The anti-peanut crowd was probably next on the list to attack fearing that they might swell up and explode while waiting for a bus. :P

[tekdroid @ Dec 6th 2006 5:51AM]

next: gas mask vendors by every ScentedStop(tm)

[tom @ Dec 6th 2006 6:15AM]

good riddance. milk is unnatural beyond the age of 3 anyway. especially that of another species...

[Guy @ Dec 6th 2006 6:28AM]

Dudes, if you want to smell cookies so bad, go to the f*cking supermarket and buy some. The EHNC isn't complaining for their own amusement, there are serious ethical and health problems involved in the wholesale use of scents for marketing purposes.

[hydrogen_wv @ Dec 6th 2006 8:46AM]

I guess we need to get rid of bakeries... They smell like food when you pass by... so do Chinese restaurants... and pizza shops... Hey, i'd rather smell chinese food, pizza, and cookies than exhaust fumes.

[nouchema @ Dec 6th 2006 8:22AM]

hey men,
come to FRANCE to see what we do with our bus shelters
and if you speak french you can understand that smell doesn't do anything to change our comportement !


;)

http://nouchema.blog.lemonde.fr/2006/12/05/du-bruit-apres-les-odeurs/

[Jayson @ Dec 6th 2006 8:21AM]

I don't believe this one for a moment. The force required to lodge that remote in the TV is just too great.

On the other hand, I think that it is great when this happens to people. You need to keep control of the Wiimote, it's that simple. Watch the commercial for Wii when the woman is bowling. She gently makes the motion of bowling and doesn't actually put the force behind the remote to send a real bowling ball down the alley.

Each one of these posts about someone damaging their TV/window/wall/child/cat with the wiimote shows us another idiot in the wild. Gizmodo showed the trailer park country bumpkin who was first "featured" as winner of the idiot award for breaking his TV. Engadget had the article also but happily did not subject us to his picture. We even got the video of the idiot swashing the wiimote into the wall where you can clearly see he is out of control.

It's simple; take care when using the wiimote. The strap was designed to help keep control of it but not to permanently affix the thing to your wrist to survive a 300 MPH throw and release of it.

[Jayson @ Dec 6th 2006 8:22AM]

Sorry about that, I had two windows open and apparently posted in the wrong one. Sorry.

[Ben @ Dec 6th 2006 8:46AM]

Makes sense. San Fransisco is too busy smelling their farts to notice the smell of cookies.

[Eric @ Dec 6th 2006 9:54AM]

Wow...just...wow...how ghey has society gotten? Yep...the pussification of America is in full force.

[ArcadeSNS @ Dec 6th 2006 10:11AM]

Actually. I work at Arcade Marketing, Inc. Basically the Scent Sampling leaders of the world. All those magazine ads you pop open and smell the fresh goodness! yeah we make those. Well around 80% of the market. Boxes you scratch and smell. Yep. Us. Little packs you rip open and lotion is inside attached to a card? Ohhh yeah..

We don't choose to put what scent with what, we just do what the customer wants. Wet Dog. We've done that. Ashtray smell? that too. Remember that TV show "Weeds" yeah, we did Pot Scent too.

[Bill Gates @ Dec 6th 2006 10:05AM]

As well as hating children, people with asthma and respiratory diseases shouldn't alive anyways.

[eliska @ Dec 6th 2006 11:42AM]

sure would be an improvement over the smell of urine one often finds in MUNI shelters...

[Lesbian Ham @ Dec 6th 2006 12:00PM]

"Nob hill"?

ROFLMFAO

[karmaghost @ Dec 6th 2006 12:42PM]

God forbid that I should have to smell cookies while waiting for the bus... while the guy next to me blissfully smokes a cigarette.

[karmaghost @ Dec 6th 2006 12:25PM]

God forbid that I should have to smell cookies while waiting for the bus... while the guy next to me blissfully drags on his cigarette.

[karmaghost @ Dec 6th 2006 12:27PM]

God forbid that I should have to smell cookies while waiting for the bus... as the guy standing next to me blissfully drags on his cigarette.

[Elliott @ Dec 6th 2006 12:55PM]

According to a press release by the Milk Board or the media company (don't remember which), the smell is from a "flavor" (much like anything you would smell at the grocery store) and not a chemical fragrance (like perfume). This poses NO problems to anybody, yet EHNC wouldn't be convinced. It's silly when a tiny group of ho-hums has to ruin the fun for everyone. Good thing there aren't people "allergic" to advertising, as the whole industry would have to go offline.

[frank @ Dec 6th 2006 2:46PM]

I heard some politician on NPR yesterday use the expression "COVE", or Citizens Against Virtually Everything, which I thought was pretty funny. Seems to apply here.