Why an Insurance Company Created a Scented Print Ad That Releases the 'New-Car Smell'

To entice auto buyers, insurer Liberty Mutual is running a print ad with a peel-back fragrance strip—the same kind used to sell perfumes. Only instead of citrus and sandalwood, it’s going for that heady and ambiguous cocktail of vinyl and plastic gases that come with a ride fresh off the manufacturer’s assembly line.

The ad, created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, ran in Sunday’s edition of the Chicago Sun Times, and is part of a clever bid to use sense memory as a way of associating Liberty Mutual with the process of test-driving or buying a new car.