Scent as a memory trigger is a dynamic which beauty brand O Boticário–a leader in recycling in Brazil–has deployed in the hope that also triggered will be heightened awareness of the damage done by pollution to our natural resources. Created by agency AlmapBBDO in São Paulo, Brazil, this project has O Boticário creating a fragrance which smells like Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay did before it was polluted.
The Guanabara Bay-inspired scent, dubbed “Extinto," is the first in a limited run of products which will not be for sale, and which were developed as an urgent call to action to prevent pollution and incorrect waste management from degrading natural reserves. In Brazil today, just 1.1 million of the 27.7 million tons of recyclable waste produced on a daily basis are properly disposed of–coming in far below countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Turkey.
The Extinto Project will continue on to four more continents, warning the world about the scents that may cease to exist if we don’t start improving our waste management. Over the months to come, Boticário will release fragrances inspired by the scents of other landscapes across the world which are currently threatened by pollution: Calabria, in Europe; the island of Madagascar, in Africa; New Delhi, in Asia; and East Arnhem, in Oceania.
“Waste management is a global concern. And that’s why we’re keen to get the conversation going internationally, working to make sure that our urgent message, which stems from Boticário’s genuine concern to ensure that natural scents are never driven to extinction, can be spread across the globe,” said Marcela de Masi, executive director of branding and communications at the Boticário Group.
AlmapBBDO also spearheaded the creation of this video manifesto for Extinto, featuring real, shocking footage of Guanabara Bay. The video was directed by Patryck Rhuan via production company Paranoid. The agency additionally headed up the design and concept behind the unique, exclusive bottles, which mimic landmarks around the world, among them Guanabara Bay. Through a painstaking process, the glass was sculpted into the silhouettes of landscapes by Brazilian artist Elvira Schuartz.
“This project isn’t just about getting people to engage with environmental causes, but, above all, about showing the real work that Boticário has put into conserving and helping to restore the environment,” explained AlmapBBDO chief creative officer Marco Giannelli.
To create the fragrance without extracting any raw materials from the bay itself, the brand’s perfumers traveled to the area around Guanabara Bay and used headspace technology to capture samples of aromatic molecules from the environment. Based on a detailed analysis, the team of experts was able to identify the scents present in the better conserved parts of the region and re-create those natural accords using synthetic materials.
