Scented

In a recent edition of Car and Driver, I ran across an ad for Ford Mustang cologne. It had this cheesy picture of a tough, scruffy-looking cowboy character wearing mirrored aviators in the foreground with a black Mustang being driven through a dusty, desert trail in the background.

Uh, chee-sy!

It didn't have one of those flaps you can peel open to take a sample sniff. Besides, how good could this possibly smell? My best guess would be that it would smell cheap and be way too musky: Representative of both the car itself and most of the guys driving them. I let out a "wow, I can't believe they actually made this" and then flipped the page.

So by chance I happened to be wandering through Wal-Mart and spied one for sale on the shelf. Curiosity overtook me and I had to take a sniff.

Surprisingly, it actually smelled pretty good. Light, crisp, with citrus hints. Very summery. It smelled a hell of a lot better than I ever imagined it would. It smelled expensive. It didn't smell like a guido. I was a bit flabbergasted that this Ford Mustang cologne was something that I might actually consider purchasing for my own personal use.

I stood there in the middle of the aisle, staring at the bottle in my hand, mouth open in disbelief.

So there you go. Don't go judging books by their covers.

And no, I didn't buy one.