Musty e-Books? [Scratch & Sniff Marketing]

CaféScribe, a web site that offers e-textbooks and free software for sharing and annotating PDFs and other documents, has announced plans to offer the world's first smelly e-book, providing every e-book purchaser with a scratch & sniff sticker with a "certifiably musty, old-book smell," according to Reuters (as well as Teleread and other outlets). The company commissioned a Zogby poll of college students that found 43% consider "smell" to be the thing they most love about books. Other findings from the study will be announced in coming days, according to the web site.

Hmmm. How... unconventional.

[Disclaimer: I serve as a consultant to CaféScribe.]