Taste, Feel and Smell...Proof the "smell" is being accepted by newspapers as a viable way to attract readers.

The September 9th issue of the Los Angeles Times became the first paper to run scratch an sniff ads using special ink technology from Flint Group.

"The scented ink ad is yet the latest tool the Times is offering its advertisers as the continue to search for new ways to reach, excite and inform L.A.'s market of buzz," said Dave Murphy, executive vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles Times Media Group.

The scented ink is based on technology developed by Flint Group and Valhalla N.Y. based Scentisphere. Scented capsules are mixed into the printing ink applied directly to the web.

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal tested the ink at its Chicopee, Mass., and New Brunswick, N.J., plants, and USA Today also evaluated the technology (see Newspapers & Technology, April 2007).

The Times, however, is the first paper to offer Flint Group's scented ink as part of an advertising package.

Scented Ads Race Gets New Winner

Turns out the Los Angeles Times wasn't the first paper to produce scratch and sniff ads for an advertiser (see Dateline, Sept. 10, 2007).

Instead, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel quietly came under the wire to be the first Tribune Publishing paper to run the scented ink, according to Kelly Benson, vice president of operations.

The Sentinel, she said, started it's press run producing its scented ad three hours before the Times began its run. The Sentinel's ad ran Friday, Sept. 7 while the Times' ad ran Sunday, Sept. 9.

Benson told Newspaper & Technology that agreements with the advertiser, a local theatrical group, precluded the Sentinel from announcing its pioneering press run. Ironically, both the Sentinel and Times ads featured frosted cake scents.

Flint Group provided the scented ink the newspapers used.

(See BIG STUFF® News issues 1, 3 and 4.)