• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, August 1, 2016

In what absolutely positively has to be some kind of strangely twisted late April Fool's joke, McCann Montevideo (Uruguay) has launched I CANN Eau de Creativite, a perfume that is said to symbolize the agency's commitment to creativity and which promises to boost creativity among employees.  

Of the stunt, er, launch, McCann Montevideo CEO and Creative Director Leandro Gomez said: “What brands say is important, but more important is what they do. For this reason we wanted to create something special that would reflect McCann’s mission: to make brands play a meaningful role in people’s lives."  

And by play a meaningful role in people's lives, I assume that means somehow boosting a creative's creativity. In an effort to lend some science to the product launch, Gomez added: “In our research we determined that creativity is completely emotional and with no logical process. We also learned that scents are a powerful medium to convey emotions -- in fact, 75% of our emotions are connected to scents that immediately take us back to very specific moments of our lives. That is why we wanted to create a scent that symbolizes creativity."  

While it is very true that scents can be associated with and help recall a memory -- then again, so can a slap across the face at a crucial moment -- it's not really clear just how this perfume is going to boost the creative prowess of the agency's creatives.  

But here's where the press release really got April Fools-y. Apparently the instructions on the bottle state that it cannot be opened until a big idea is found. Then, and I shit you not, I'm told the first application must be made after a peak moment of creativity supposedly because "aromatic notes will be fixed in the user's olfactory memory associating the scent with the momentum of creative discovery." Oh and "users must repeat the proper application at least three times to successfully establish the connection between scent and creativity." 

Right. If that were the case, we could train any moron to be a creative, right? Shove a big idea in front of some idiot, force them to snort this I CANN perfume and BOOM, a new creative is born. Apparently, McCann thinks it's that simple.  

Oh, and they didn't just stop with a press release. They even produced an excruciatingly long, excruciatingly pompous and self-important video touting the launch of the product.