Redditors discussed the economics behind perfume marketing campaigns:

• Unless you resort to crass “scratch ‘n’ sniffs” it’s hard to transmit an actual smell over most traditional forms of marketing media.
• Instead perfume makers try to sell a lifestyle that draws their target market. Axe targets young men so its commercials are about getting dates with attractive women.
• Meanwhile women are the ones that buy cologne for their significant others, so in Polo’s commercials the men are suave, sophisticated, and devoted to their partners.
• Smell is linked to memory. Ads will present situations that evoke a certain feeling associated with their scent.

Read the entire discussion on Reddit.