There's a perfectly good reason why this new fragrance smells like sour milk

Food waste is a huge problem in the Western world -- and part of the problem is "best before" dates.  According to a study by Swedish supermarket chain Coop, 38 per cent of Swedes don’t eat food that has passed its best before dates, even if the food is still fine, rather than trusting their own senses of smell and taste.

To highlight this, Edelman Deportivo made an actual fragrance featuring "Old Milk," to  start a conversation on the topic and remind Swedes what bad milk smells like. The campaign isn't just about the spoof fragrance ad (seen here) which is running on social media-- Edelman really did make the fragrance, analyzing real sour milk from a fridge and recreating the smell from various ingredients.

Simon Kraft, creative at Edelman Deportivo, explains:  “To create Old Milk, we gave a professional perfumer, Collect & Bottle), the mission to reproduce the stench of milk ‘gone bad.’ The production took 10 months, and at the end, our scent came very, very close to the original smell."

The agency has made a first batch with hundreds of bottles that are handed out to media and influencers and has also produced more than 100,000 scent samples that people can order online at the Old Milk website. (Though why you would is anyone's guess.) It'll also present the scent to people on the street and will run scented sample ads in lifestyle magazines.