Beyond the Screen: Bath & Body Works Shines a Spotlight on the Power of Scent

Brand Campaign's Continued Expansion Invites Consumers to 'Come Back to Your Senses' and Highlights the Power of Fragrance

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bath & Body Works, the global leader in personal care and home fragrance, is on a mission to reconnect consumers with what it believes is the most important sense: smell.

Through continued expansion of the brand's "Come Back To Your Senses" creative platform, the campaign illustrates the power fragrance has in connecting consumers to their emotions, memories and moods. After all, the sense of smell can be a powerful, yet often underappreciated, tool for enriching daily life.  

"While today's consumers live in a largely digital world where sight and sound reign supreme, the reality is our sense of smell can connect us to our most vibrant life experiences – from the feeling of being on the beach, a cherished family memory, or your signature scent that makes you feel like you," said Jamie Sohosky, chief marketing officer at Bath & Body Works. "Bath & Body Works believes passionately in the important role fragrance plays in our daily lives, and through Come Back To Your Senses, we are on a mission to ensure no one ever takes their sense of scent for granted again."

"You've dreamed about teleportation? . . . Well, it's already here"
New with Come Back To Your Senses is Bath & Body Works' latest advertising spot, featuring Emmy Award Nominee Jessica Williams from the AppleTV+ hit comedy "Shrinking." Taking a page from the tech-industry's fabled innovation keynotes, the advertisement demonstrates scent as a powerful new device by evoking memories and transporting Williams to different places and times – a keynote, a lavender field, her teenage bedroom and in the bath.

"I love the juxtaposition of high- and low-tech inherent in this campaign," remarked Williams. "We live in such a digitally-focused, fast-paced environment, so I personally appreciate the message of taking a moment to stop and come back to your senses—all through the power of fragrance. And when it comes to fragrance, no one gets it like Bath & Body Works."

The brand will also be connecting scent and sound this summer— bringing the power of fragrance to music festival goers via Bath & Body Works' Scent x Sound Labs.  At the upcoming Just Like Heaven and Sand in My Boots festivals, attendees will experience an immersive, multi-sensory experience where fragrance and music converge to create a unique scent-memory connection. With more experiential integrations planned this year, Bath & Body Works will be celebrating all the ways scent and fragrance can help consumers live more fully.

86% of consumers admit it's easy to take their sense of smell for granted, yet 78% said it is important to their overall well-being*.
To further underscore the power of fragrance, Bath & Body Works commissioned its "Scent & Senses" survey of 1,500+ adult Americans aged 18-65 in partnership with independent market research firm Reputation Leaders to gain a deeper understanding of U.S. consumers' relationship to, and awareness of scent.

The key insight of this April 2025 Scent & Senses survey? While consumers overwhelmingly agree that scent improves their lives, this vital element remains absent from digital experiences, with Americans ranking their sense of smell as the "least important" of their five senses while also – time and again – reporting how critically important it is. Survey respondents noted,

• 72% agree "fragrance makes their lives better";
• Two out of three said fragrance is "essential to self-care" (65%); and
• Half (50%) said "a day without the scents they love is like a day without sunshine."

Does fragrance really have "transportive" powers? 
Nearly 4 in 5 Scent & Senses survey respondents reported feeling that fragrance has the power to transport them to another place or time (78%), while more than half (54%) say that scent has the effect of stopping them in their tracks, or "arresting time" all together.

Despite the adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words," the Scent & Senses survey suggests nearly 3 in 4 Americans (70%) agree that a particular scent transports them back to a specific moment or memory more vividly than a photograph.

Can your nose help make a love connection?
According to the survey data, it might, with respondents saying that scent plays a strong role in their interpersonal relations:

• Two out of three Americans (65%) believe they would identify their romantic partner by scent alone if blindfolded;
• Three-quarters (74%) admit they would be more likely to "make a move on someone" if that special someone smelled good; and
• An unpleasant smelling home is a "turn off," not a turn on, with 4 out of 5 saying an unpleasant odor in someone's home would make them visit less.

That said, people often choose a particular fragrance for their own enjoyment—not necessarily to attract a mate. In fact, 58% of Gen Z report that they choose to wear a particular perfume because they like the scent, even if it might repel a potential love interest.

About the Campaign
Bath & Body Works' Come Back To Your Senses advertising spot featuring Jessica Williams debuts on May 3, 2025, during coverage of the Kentucky Derby; in the immediate days that follow, will air during the NBA Conference Semi-Finals and Met Gala; and then will continue via various streaming services. The advertisement was created by G1, Publicis Groupe's bespoke integrated team led by The Community.

As the global leader in fragrance for 35 years, Bath & Body Works has a fragrance and format to match any mood or emotion—and to truly Come Back To Your Senses, shoppers can explore the Bath & Body Works robust product collection in-stores nationwide or online at bathandbodyworks.com.

ABOUT BATH & BODY WORKS
Home of America's Favorite Fragrances^®, Bath & Body Works is a global leader in personal care and home fragrance, including top-selling collections for fine fragrance mist, body lotion and body cream, 3-wick candles, home fragrance diffusers and liquid hand soap. Powered by agility and innovation, the company's predominantly U.S.-based supply chain enables the company to deliver quality, on-trend luxuries at affordable prices. Bath & Body Works serves and delights customers however and wherever they want to shop, from welcoming, in-store experiences at more than 1,890 company-operated Bath & Body Works locations in the U.S. and Canada and more than 525 international franchised locations to an online storefront at bathandbodyworks.com.

*SURVEY METHODOLOGY
The "Scent & Senses" survey, sponsored by Bath & Body Works, was fielded by independent research firm Reputation Leaders in April 2025, surveying 1,500+ adult Americans aged 18-65, sampled and weighted to be nationally representative.

MEDIA CONTACT
Emmy Beach
Bath & Body Works
[email protected]

SOURCE Bath & Body Works