Doctors Without Borders launches fragrance ads with disinfectant in place of perfume samples

Key Takeaways

• Doctors Without Borders in Germany (Ärzte ohne Grenzen) has worked with Mediaplus Berlin, the Mediaplus Creative Collective and REPUBLIC Marketing & Media Solutions on a fundraising campaign called "This fragrance knows no borders".

• The ads look like classic perfume adverts with floral imagery and a perfume bottle, but the scent sachet contains disinfectant, the product that protects patients and medical teams in crisis regions.

• Scented versions appear in Cosmopolitan and Good Health, while FAZ Magazin, Brigitte, Gala, Bunte, Freundin and Emotion carry versions with a QR code linking to the charity's website.

• The campaign launched on 1 October and runs through November, with scented postcards sent via Flaconi and placed in beauty salons, plus digital screens near Douglas stores including Berlin's Kurfürstendamm.

Doctors Without Borders has launched "This fragrance knows no borders" in Germany, a fundraising campaign that borrows the look of a glossy fragrance advert and then hides disinfectant inside the little sachet where readers expect to find a perfume sample. Created with media agency Mediaplus Berlin and its Mediaplus Creative Collective, the ad comes with a floral visual and a perfume bottle, alongside the line "Dieser Duft kennt keine Grenzen", which carries into English as "This Fragrance Knows No Borders." Anyone who peels open the sample expecting something sweet and expensive gets the sharp, clinical smell of a hospital ward instead, and that small surprise is designed to make them think about the disinfectant that protects patients and medical teams in the crisis regions where the organisation works.

Perfume adverts usually sell an emotion, a mood or a fantasy of escape, whereas this one sells something far less glamorous and far more necessary, since disinfectant is one of the basic supplies that keeps clinics safe from infection. By swapping the expected scent for that hospital smell, the campaign also gives readers a physical memory to attach to the charity's work, which is something a printed appeal made only of words and photographs struggles to achieve.

The core concept for the scented print ad was developed with REPUBLIC Marketing & Media Solutions, while the Mediaplus Creative Collective, led by Global Chief Creative Officer Maximilian Schöngen, handled the creative execution and Mediaplus Berlin planned where the ads would appear. The scented sachets run in Cosmopolitan and Good Health, which are titles where readers are used to finding fragrance samples, while FAZ Magazin, Brigitte, Gala, Bunte, Freundin and Emotion carry versions of the ad with a QR code that leads straight to the charity's website. The campaign launched on 1 October and runs through November across print, retail and digital out of home, so the message follows people from the magazine page to the places where they actually shop for perfume.

Postcards carrying the disinfectant sample are being sent out through the online fragrance retailer Flaconi and displayed in selected beauty salons, while digital out of home screens appear close to perfumeries such as Douglas, including locations on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm shopping street. Nicole Huwendiek, senior advisor for integrated fundraising campaigns at Doctors Without Borders, explained the choice of format by saying, "Today, many people no longer listen to NGOs. That's why this time we decided not to communicate through words, but through another sense: smell." She added that "Using disinfectant as a fragrance sample disrupts a familiar context and draws attention to something truly life-changing", namely access to basic medical care, and said "The campaign highlights the important work of Doctors Without Borders and the fact that support remains urgently needed."

Elke Reibetanz, managing partner at Mediaplus Berlin, described the media thinking behind the placements when she argued that attention "is not a function of reach alone" and that "An idea comes to life through context," which is why the plan put the ads near perfumeries and inside premium beauty, lifestyle and news titles where fragrance advertising already feels at home. She continued, "By reinterpreting a familiar advertising format, we create an unexpected touchpoint that encourages people to pause for a moment and take notice of the vital work carried out by Doctors Without Borders," before setting out a clear measure of success with the words "If our campaign helps increase donations for humanitarian aid, it has achieved its purpose."