With dating services scrambling for love-seekers, one company is hoping to capitalize on one of the senses not often tapped into by the dating service behemoths: smell.

“The sense of smell evokes some of the most powerful emotions in humans,” says Brad Kassell, founder of Smell-Me-Not Dating. “We go through all of the usual routines that other dating services go through — the background checks, personal profiles, video introductions, the whole 9-yards.”

But Smell-Me-Not goes farther by offering a service that usually isn’t covered by other companies.

“We give the customer the option of purchasing a Smell-O-Gram from anyone that they are interested in,” Kassell says. “The potential mate has the option of declining or accepting the release of a sample to the requestor. If they accept, we send out a scratch-n-sniff sample of their body odor to the requestor.”

The patch, a 3″X3″ square, contains the body odor of a love-seeker that is released by scratching the square. If they are still interested after smelling the object of their interest, they can request a date. The other person can decline if they so choose.

“Sometimes you just smell them and say, ‘Wow, that’s one special person'”, Dana Lane said. “I’ve smelled a lot of men over the last few years, but I haven’t found ‘The One’ yet. I have found some really great-smelling men, though.”

The company hopes to advertise in several major magazines in the coming year by including some scratch-n-sniff samples of customers willing to let the world smell them.

“I think it’s going to be an exciting year,” Kassell said.

–Staff Reporter — bs