Your favorite department store might seem a little friendlier, you might shop a little longer and you might feel so serene that you plunk down the cash for an extra pair of shoes.
That’s the scenario a Vancouver, B.C., company is peddling to retailers. Enhanced Air Technologies claims their proprietary synthetic human pheromone compound — pumped through a store’s ventilation system — makes shoppers feel more at ease.
Enhanced Air’s Director of Development Nigel Malkin said the company’s product, Commercaire, makes consumers feel comfortable and secure so they shop longer and spend more.
Ethicists at the University of Texas Medical Branch and the University of Houston — Clear Lake said the practice is offensive if consumers aren’t told the system is in use, and one of the country’s leading experts in pheromone research questioned the validity of the company’s scientific claims.
But Enhanced Air promises big sales boosts and spiking customer loyalty. “The compound doesn’t cause consumers to get into a spending frenzy so much as it causes them to feel more at ease in an environment and more receptive to sales messages,” said Malkin.
Ethics Questioned
Bill Winslade, a University of Texas Medical Branch ethicist who is also a lawyer, said using such a system without notifying shoppers would be deplorable.
“I would certainly be strongly opposed to the use of substances of that sort surreptitiously because to use something to try to affect the thoughts and feelings of consumers without their knowledge is clearly unethical if not illegal,” Winslade said. “I would think they should be required to post a highly visible notice that they were doing something like that.”
Neither state nor federal laws currently regulate the practice. University of Houston — Clear Lake philosophy professor Paul Wagner, who is the school’s director of the Project in Professional Ethics, agreed that consumers should be warned.
“If you did it without me knowing, you’re kind of a scoundrel,” said Wagner. “You’re sneaking up on me, you’re ambushing me.”
Winslade said that as a marketing tool it’s vastly different than advertising. “At least you’re exposed to ads directly,” he said. “There’s something more sinister about something that’s released into the air that you can’t see or smell or know it’s there.”
The ethical line is less clear if consumers know that a store is pumping something through the air system that affects mood or behavior. Winslade said no one would take issue with a store offering free coffee and doughnuts to make their customers feel more at ease, but that scenario offers consumers a choice. “That’s an open behavior,” said Winslade. “This seems so sneaky.”
Wagner said stores could potentially turn notification to their advantage by advertising the practice, telling shoppers the system was in use for their comfort and enjoyment — but again, it’s a matter of notice.
“At least you’ve had an opportunity to decide,” Wagner said. “Is there something patently wrong with piping these things through the ventilation system? Not necessarily.”
Wagner said that doing so without notice to shoppers, though, was predatory.
Business Boon
Malkin said the compound was developed for a Las Vegas casino to keep gamblers in a better mood.
“We’re now seeing huge demand from other sectors, especially in the retail and restaurant industries,” said Malkin. “Our clients are reporting increases in their bottom lines across the board.”
According to the company’s marketing materials, an unnamed chain of retail stores tested the synthetic phero-mone compound in half of its stores. The company stores using the system saw a 14-percent sales increase compared to the same quarter one year earlier. Enhanced Air says the stores that weren’t equipped with the system saw a dip in sales of more than 5 percent, which the retailer chalked up to a sluggish economy.
Citing a confidentiality policy, the company would not disclose the names of any of its customers.
Casino Expert Skeptical
University of Nevada — Las Vegas professor David Schwartz is head of the school’s Gaming Studies Research Center and the author of “Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond.” Schwartz said he knew of no casinos that pump anything through their ventilation systems other than air.
“People already stay there and gamble,” Schwartz said. “People staying there longer doesn’t mean they’re going to gamble more.”
Schwartz said casinos use air handlers, giant pumps that refresh all the air in the room every five minutes. He said infusing the ventilation system with anything would be contrary to the current attitude of casino management: they want people to play up to their budgets for entertainment, but no more.
Manipulating gamblers’ behavior surreptitiously would pose too great a risk for a public relations nightmare, Schwartz said.
“Something like that would seem so boldly predatory it would raise that issue — do you want to take all their money?” he said.
Schwartz also contends that rumors of casinos pumping oxygen through the vents to keep players awake at night is nothing more than urban legend. He said the idea that a casino would infuse a ventilation system with a chemical — even an organic one — was hard to believe.
“They work pretty hard to try to keep the air as clean as possible,” Schwartz said. “But who knows, there could be a giant alien base under the Strip.”
Science Questioned
Enhanced Air echoes the claims of Winnifred Cutler, a Pennsylvania researcher who isolated human pheromones in the 1980s. Scientists have long known that animals — especially insects — produce the natural chemical, which operates as a sexual attractant. Insect pheromones, particularly those from some beetle species, are commonly used as a natural pesticide to attract harmful bugs to traps.
The most common use of human pheromones — or their synthetic counterparts — is as an additive to colognes and is marketed as an opposite-sex attractant.
Cutler concedes that while her published research established the existence of human pheromones, no one is sure how they work.
“Researchers suspect that airborne pheromones may be detected by the olfactory (smelling) system,” Cutler wrote. “Scientists have identified two possible sites inside the nose that might serve as receptors for pheromones — the olfactory epithelium and/or the vomeronasal organ.”
Balderdash, says Duke University neurobiologist and pheromone researcher Lawrence Katz. “Scientifically I can tell you it’s extremely dubious,” Katz said. “If the VMO exists at all, it’s nonfunctional.”
Katz said that even where anatomical remnants of the vomeronasal organ — commonly referred to as the VMO — are present, evolution has made it nonfunctional, much like the appendix.
“There’s really no scientific evidence that’s generally accepted by the scientific community that identifies these compounds as working,” Katz said. “Based on molecular biology, the nuts and bolts of the system are no longer functional in the human.”
Katz conceded, though, that our breathing system hasn’t been eliminated as a possible conduit. “Our regular olfactory sense may be able to detect chemicals that carry messages,” he said.
Still, Katz doesn’t buy the idea the pheromones pumped through a ventilation system would affect behavior.
“Most pheromones are used for aggressive interactions, marking territory or sexual attraction,” Katz said. “They’re not a kind of aromatherapy application. There are many claims of subconscious influence on consumer behavior, but there’s very little independent scientific evidence outside of the company’s own claims.”
Caveat Emptor
Enhanced Air Technologies sells an air distribution system that will cover up to 10,000 square feet for $450. Four-liter pheromone infused gels that last two to four weeks sell for $96 each, a paltry sum for a 10,000-square-foot store if sales increase 17 percent.
Are local stores patronizing Enhanced Air Technologies? It’s impossible to say. The company won’t name names and representatives of some large chains operating locally either didn’t return calls or declined comment.
Although the effectiveness of the system remains unclear, the ethicists still hold that consumers should be notified if such a device is in use. “People should have a right not to subject themselves to influences they don’t have any control over,” Winsdale said.
