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The smell of beer

HIGH on the list of technology launches we didn’t mind missing in 2007 was the debut of Kaoru Digital Signage in front of the Kirin City Beer Hall in an underground Tokyo mall. From mid-October until the end of the year, a digital advertising display built by the Japanese phone company NTT entertained passers-by with an image of a glass of beer while an aroma diffuser wafted citrus-scented oils through the air. Lemon and orange smells, according to an NTT press release, are “associated with beer”, which is presumably why they were chosen to lure people in to buy a pint or…