Berthoud

A Dutch toiletries and cosmetics brand, now best known for their range of shower gel and deodorant body spray, both of which are available in the same range of scents.

Each variety is named for a different colour, and the original advertising campaign for Red and Blue featured characters discussing what the scent is. Most of the fragrances are hard to positively identify, but most people would be able to smell one of the shower gels and immediately guess what colour it is (The deodorants don't have a colour, of course, but come in cans the same colour as the corresponding shower gel). One ad had a popular comedic duo at the time arguing over whether Berthoud Red smells more like cherries or strawberries. There was a parody which circulated online, edited to include people suggesting that it's supposed to smell like stop signs, ladybugs, or fresh blood. The company leaned into this, and every new variety since has been accompanied by a campaign suggesting all kinds of outlandish things that it could smell like.

The only exception to this is Berthoud Forest Freshness, which everybody refers to as 'green', and is almost universally agreed to have captured the scent of freshly cut grass.

They are mostly seen as pleasant, manly scents. In popular romance fiction, it seems to be hinted that they can have an aphrodisiac effect, although it's not sure where this trend started.

Varieties

(and most common description of the current scent)

• Red - some kind of berries or fresh fruit
• Blue - some kind of herbs or flowers
• Gold - exotic spices; a busy marketplace
• "Green" - grass
• Brown - Hazelnut, chocolate, and/or coffee
• White - a hospital or hospice (but somehow in a good way)
• Black - a steel foundry or blacksmith's workshop