What's Your Car Scent?

And now it’s time for The Lempert Report. PAUSE. Nancy Reagan relied on one as did George W. Bush, Winston Churchill and FDR – celebs including Mae West, George Clooney, Cameron Diaz and Maria Shriver all do as well. Albert Einstein, well regarded as one of the most famous scientists of all time loved the teachings of this ancient belief system. And now so does Proctor & Gamble. The team that leads Febreze has teamed up with celebrity astrologer Aliza Kelly to develop and launch the CARstrology Collection – a collection designed to match your astrological sign to your car’s air freshener. Seriously.  So, if today happens to be your birthday, you are a Taurus. Taurus is known for sophisticated palates and a deep reverence for the finer things in life. So your CARstrology fragrance is ”lush” that P&G describes as having a sweet vanilla scent with perfectly paired notes of melon, apple & musk. What’s your sign – and would you buy a car freshener based on your astrological sign? And what happens if you and your partner are in the car together and you have different signs? And what about the kids? Are they different signs as well? While this strategy is certainly a personalized one – I just have to wonder if anyone realized that all too often there are multiple people in the same car. Could this fragrance promote ill will? Or prompt arguments when a particular fragrance is just the opposite of another passenger’s sign profile?

On Febreze’s social media channels they are promoting CARstrology with a sweepstakes to give away 480 Zodiac specific keepsake boxes along with a TV, streaming, YouTube, radio and gaming app campaign promoting the line. 480 giveaways doesn’t seem like the P&G success model – where for generations their key to owning market share was to send a sample of their products - which most times – outperformed the competition to every household in the US. Almost overnight this strategy propelled them to be number one in their categories. I’m an Aries – yes a fire sign – and my CARstrology scent is called CAR Ember. Seriously? They say it’s an invigorating blend of mandarin and amber melds with the surprising scent of lava. I’ll take a pass.