I remember back in college, I submitted an assignment to my philosophy professor Mr. Crotty (not my fave, and arguably not my best course), which he threw back in my face the next class and exclaimed quite vehemently:
"This paper stinks!"
To me, it was a crushing insult. Say the same to Yvan Girardin, and you're paying him an extreme compliment.
Yvan is the CEO of VEX Emotions, an innovative Montreal company that--in association with Cascades Paper and Ultra Ink--has just launched Olfaprint, which he calls "The Third Dimension of paper."
This ain't yesterday's scratch-and-sniff, micro-bubble bursting process. VEX's technology impregnates the scent directly into the paper stock, which is released into our olfactory canals upon exposure to air, and lasts up to seven days out in the open.
"Traditionally, paper was limited to only two dimensions, visual and tactile," Girardin explains. "This delivers an effortless olfaction experience for consumers."
But unlike my philosophy paper, Olfaprint has 70 different smells, like bubble gum, cinnamon bun and something called "Paris Hilton," which they say duplicates her signature perfume...but I suspect we can all think of other more apropos fragrances for the name.
Sounds a bit silly, but scent is increasingly being used as a mood-setter and marketing differentiator, and this democratizes what was once only available to the big boys and their mega-print runs.
Put another way, if I had to do that assignment today for Mr. Crotty, I would know what kind of paper I would type it on so that it would REALLY stink.