Mist

I've seen many commercials for air fresheners in my life, and their frequency seems to be increasing. I was unaware that bad smells were becoming such an epidemic in this country.

I think air fresheners can be useful to a certain degree, but I sincerely doubt I will need to use them as regularly or as heavily as the advertisements say I should. That's not what annoys me, though. What annoys me are the names given to the "scents" that are offered.

It's not the silliness of some of the names. It's the misrepresentation. "Tundra Mist" doesn't smell anything like the arctic tundra. "Ocean Surge" does nothing to remind me of the beach at high tide. "Blossoming Meadow" will never conjure images of flowering fields. "Spring Morning" and "Summer Breeze" smell the same to me.

Today I saw a commercial for another new air freshener. This one claimed to impart the refreshing scent of a waterfall. I will admit that the air around a waterfall is particularly pleasant in an invigorating way, but I sincerely doubt any manufactured chemical spray could ever duplicate it. There is much more to smell than the simple matter of particles of matter coming into contact with olfactory receptors in the nose and causing neural activity.
- Temperature makes a big difference. Think of an apple pie. Does it smell the same fresh from the oven as it does from the fridge the next day? The air surrounding waterfalls is generally cooler than my living room, and I'm not about to turn on the AC to duplicate that aspect of the experience.
- Humidity and moisture are factors. Would you rather share a room with a wet dog or a dry dog? Waterfalls involve water, so the air around them is wet. The air in my house is dry.
- Waterfalls involve rocks, soil, plants, and algae. If some air freshener manufacturer managed to fit all those aspects of their scent into one package, I don't think I could carry it home, let alone afford to buy it.

The only way to really get my living room to smell like a waterfall would be to build my living room around a waterfall.