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| Scratch and sniff cannabis leaflets? Smells like a nice gimmick | Scratch and sniff cannabis leaflets? Smells like a nice gimmick |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| With cannabis cultivation up 15% in the last year alone (and if that's only going on the amount of cannabis known about by police – given the incredible smarts of most cannabis dealers, it can only be the tip of the iceberg), thoughts are turning to what to do about it. One of the tactics settled upon has been to encourage people to grass up their local grass growers. Logical, you say, everyone loves a snitch. But how to make the request? Phone and you'll get an earful; knock on the door and you'll be ignored. The answer, as hit upon by cop-associated charity Crimestoppers, is more sophisticated: deploy scratch and sniff technology. | With cannabis cultivation up 15% in the last year alone (and if that's only going on the amount of cannabis known about by police – given the incredible smarts of most cannabis dealers, it can only be the tip of the iceberg), thoughts are turning to what to do about it. One of the tactics settled upon has been to encourage people to grass up their local grass growers. Logical, you say, everyone loves a snitch. But how to make the request? Phone and you'll get an earful; knock on the door and you'll be ignored. The answer, as hit upon by cop-associated charity Crimestoppers, is more sophisticated: deploy scratch and sniff technology. |
| This week, 210,000 leaflets encouraging the dobbing in of drug farmers will be posted through the letterboxes of the English regions. Normally they might blend indistinguishably into the other metric tonne of bumf in our letterboxes, from takeaway menus, to two-for-one buffalo wing offers and appeals to call Susan the Mystic, who might just be able to help you with that terrible swelling. With the addition of scratch and sniff technology, however, everyone will pick the leaflet up, not just to see what blooming marijuana smells like , but also to gaze like the ape from the film 2001, at the remarkable technology that is scratch and sniff. | This week, 210,000 leaflets encouraging the dobbing in of drug farmers will be posted through the letterboxes of the English regions. Normally they might blend indistinguishably into the other metric tonne of bumf in our letterboxes, from takeaway menus, to two-for-one buffalo wing offers and appeals to call Susan the Mystic, who might just be able to help you with that terrible swelling. With the addition of scratch and sniff technology, however, everyone will pick the leaflet up, not just to see what blooming marijuana smells like , but also to gaze like the ape from the film 2001, at the remarkable technology that is scratch and sniff. |
| To my surprise, Crimestoppers' idea has not gone down altogether well. There's been scoffing in the press, and an interviewee on the Today programme yesterday disputed the likely effectiveness of the scheme (and he was only on to talk about the budget). Others, including the commenters on this article, will suggest that spending money on odour-enhanced marketing is not the best use of taxpayers' money in these straitened times. I will stop them there: first off, Crimestoppers is an independent charity so it can do what it likes; and second, you should never underestimate the British people's appetite for a gimmick. | To my surprise, Crimestoppers' idea has not gone down altogether well. There's been scoffing in the press, and an interviewee on the Today programme yesterday disputed the likely effectiveness of the scheme (and he was only on to talk about the budget). Others, including the commenters on this article, will suggest that spending money on odour-enhanced marketing is not the best use of taxpayers' money in these straitened times. I will stop them there: first off, Crimestoppers is an independent charity so it can do what it likes; and second, you should never underestimate the British people's appetite for a gimmick. |
| Scratch'n'Sniff is, as you might expect, an American invention, conceived in the bowels of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (now better known as 3M) in the early 1960s. It was looking for a way to copy documents without using carbon (hence carbon copy, hence "cc") and created a "micro-encapsulation" process that allowed for the stashing of teensy dollops of plastic on a piece of paper that would release ink or suchlike when pressed upon. This idea was then picked up by another researcher at the National Cash Register company, who switched the plastic for gelatin, and created the opportunity for scents to be stashed in there too. | Scratch'n'Sniff is, as you might expect, an American invention, conceived in the bowels of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (now better known as 3M) in the early 1960s. It was looking for a way to copy documents without using carbon (hence carbon copy, hence "cc") and created a "micro-encapsulation" process that allowed for the stashing of teensy dollops of plastic on a piece of paper that would release ink or suchlike when pressed upon. This idea was then picked up by another researcher at the National Cash Register company, who switched the plastic for gelatin, and created the opportunity for scents to be stashed in there too. |
| It's fair to say that despite the best efforts of the American postwar culture of innovation, scratch and sniff never changed the world. But because it never proved particularly useful, its value as a cheap gimmick was never diminished. And this is where we come in. For, make no mistake, the British are receptive to gimmicks. In fact, there's an argument for saying that gimmicks are one of the things we do well. | |
| Gimmicks are a form of creative output, just one with a limited use. Advertising is basically an industry built around gimmicks; I don't need to tell you we're a world leader in that. There's the Monster Raving Loony Party, limited edition Kit-kats, personalised goal celebrations, Red Nose day, Jaegerbombs, and the entire career of Simon Cowell. In fact, think about it: who's better at gimmicks than us? The Americans fell totally in love with an anthropomorphic gecko who sold car insurance. Not only is our anthropomorphic insurance salesman a meerkat, he's Russian and wears a cravat. | Gimmicks are a form of creative output, just one with a limited use. Advertising is basically an industry built around gimmicks; I don't need to tell you we're a world leader in that. There's the Monster Raving Loony Party, limited edition Kit-kats, personalised goal celebrations, Red Nose day, Jaegerbombs, and the entire career of Simon Cowell. In fact, think about it: who's better at gimmicks than us? The Americans fell totally in love with an anthropomorphic gecko who sold car insurance. Not only is our anthropomorphic insurance salesman a meerkat, he's Russian and wears a cravat. |
| As a hardened drinker I did my calculations after yesterday's budget, and found that the 1p reduction on a pint of beer announced by the chancellor was something of a gimmick in itself. I would have to drink roughly 380 pints of Kronenbourg before I got a free one back. But, in this global race, where each country is scrabbling to find skills and industries that might set them apart from the rest, the British could do worse than to exploit their own appetite for gimmickry. UK PLC: the world leader in scratch and sniff technology. Has a nice smell to it, no? | As a hardened drinker I did my calculations after yesterday's budget, and found that the 1p reduction on a pint of beer announced by the chancellor was something of a gimmick in itself. I would have to drink roughly 380 pints of Kronenbourg before I got a free one back. But, in this global race, where each country is scrabbling to find skills and industries that might set them apart from the rest, the British could do worse than to exploit their own appetite for gimmickry. UK PLC: the world leader in scratch and sniff technology. Has a nice smell to it, no? |