Can’t we bring back the memories of the separated family 70 years ago? Our campaign is innovative in its use of smell and creation of perfume with the longing stories of separated families. From the novel of Marcel Proust , the main character recalls childhood memories with the scent of Madeleine. We focused on ‘Proust Phenomenon’ that was proven to the strongest sense of remembrance. In addition, since ‘Scent’ is an objet for everyone to use commonly, it was the most suitable medium to convey the 'separated family issue' which is difficult and unfamiliar to the general public. Therefore, through the cultural platform of exhibition that enables to share and gather the public, [The Scent of NORTHtalgia] was successful to make people to experience and share it with the world.

We collaborated with 1,569 of separated family members and heard about their longing hometown scent in North. We created 5 kinds of perfumes based on their interviews, thus the perfumes contain families’ memories, representing five regions of North Korea. Story of their longing memories has become a key ingredient. We delivered perfume to elders, and they felt a warm consolation in their forgotten memories of home. Also, we held [The Scent of NORTHtalgia] Exhibition for 3 months and shared the story of separated families with people at International Unification Tourist Complex, Odusan Unification Observatory, and Nurispace which is the center of Seoul. People can naturally understand and sympathize with their longing by reading the label of the perfumes and trying the perfume as it contains separated elders’ tragic stories.

[The Scent of NORTHtalgia] campaign has generated valuable results that never can be converted into numbers. The authority of Unification said, “This exhibition is a good opportunity to sympathize with the need for peaceful unification through ‘Scent’ which is beyond the audiovisual media.” KBS(Korean Governmental Broadcast) and other foreign media outlets have covered the campaign as a notable issue, and more than 86,419 visitors have visited the exhibition in 3 month and sympathize with the story of the separated family. The pictures of the perfume that were uploaded by visitors on SNS has become an advertising tool to tell the story by itself, producing voluntary viral contents without using a paid media. But above all, the most meaningful part of the campaign was that it consoled the longing of the separated family and led to form a social consensus on peaceful unification.