If Men Got to Pick Their Own Fragrances

The world of advertising is all about image. The human ego dictates that we evolve toward certain items and images that we perceive to be thought of as favorable by countless strangers. We called that peer pressure when I was a kid and I am sure they have a fancier more high tech name for it now but it's still basically monkey see, monkey do.

While sometimes that societal wave can push us in the right direction, there is often a backwash of ideology where just out and out untruths become accepted as fact. Nowhere is that more apparent than advertisements directed to men and their personal hygiene. And nowhere in the course of human events has the complete concept of being a man been cast aside than in the fragrance industry.

Especially at Christmas time, the advertising agencies work overtime trying to sell fragrances that a man has to wear to a woman who will buy it. That's why the commercials don't seem to reflect any activities or feelings that real men might have. I still don't know what Johnny Depp is burying in the desert but it certainly wouldn't make me buy that brand of cologne.

I don't want to be the only felon in the jailhouse that smells good. To me, that seems like an invitation to something none of us really want to discuss, especially at Christmas.

Perhaps there are some among us that believe a manly scent shouldn't be manly at all. Then there are men who don't mind a little stink and would prefer to smell like the things we enjoy. In other words, we don't want to offend but we don't mind the stench of an honest day's work or a hard day's play.