Key Messages
- A surprising shift in perception: Instead of a luxurious perfume, the scent ad contains disinfectant, making the experience of emergency medical care immediately tangible.
- Raising Awareness for Humanitarian Aid: The campaign uses a familiar advertising format to highlight the vital work of Doctors Without Borders and the ongoing need for support.
- Context-Specific Placement: Print, postcards, and digital out-of-home media strategically place the message in beauty and perfume settings — with the goal of increasing awareness and willingness to donate.
A fragrance without borders: Doctors Without Borders and Mediaplus turn fragrance advertising into a statement for humanitarian medical aid
The ultimate luxury? Health. Yet humanitarian crises – and the medical aid they require – often struggle to break through the noise. Too often, both fade from public consciousness. To refocus attention on lifesaving medical assistance, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) and Mediaplus have developed a Germany-wide creative media campaign that reimagines a familiar mechanism of fragrance advertising: when readers open the scent sachet attached to a print ad, they expect a fragrance but instead smell disinfectant.
Berlin, 21 October 2026 – In a media landscape where attention is scarce, humanitarian crises are often pushed into the background. Since 2021, Mediaplus has supported Doctors Without Borders’ fundraising campaigns in Germany through cross-media strategy and planning. For the new campaign, the two partners, together with the Mediaplus Creative Collective, have reinterpreted the familiar format of the fragrance print ad: a traditional fragrance sachet is embedded within a visual world of floral aesthetics and perfume-bottle imagery, but the usual scented sample has been replaced with disinfectant, creating a true Fragrance Without Borders. Under the slogan “This Fragrance Knows No Borders”, the campaign draws attention to a product that plays a crucial role in protecting patients and medical teams in crisis regions around the world.
“Today, many people no longer listen to NGOs. That’s why this time we decided not to communicate through words, but through another sense: smell. Using disinfectant as a fragrance sample disrupts a familiar context and draws attention to something truly life-changing: access to basic medical care. The campaign highlights the important work of Doctors Without Borders and the fact that support remains urgently needed,” says Nicole Huwendiek, Senior Advisor Integrated Fundraising Campaigns, Doctors Without Borders.
The campaign is strategically placed in environments where consumers naturally expect fragrance advertising – across premium beauty, lifestyle and news media. It is furthermore shared through postcards with samples, distributed via online fragrance retailer Flaconi and available in selected beauty salons. Digital out-of-home placements bring the concept into public spaces, including locations near fragrance retailers such as Douglas on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm, ensuring broad consumer reach while maximizing contextual relevance.
“Attention is not a function of reach alone. An idea comes to life through context. By reinterpreting a familiar advertising format, we create an unexpected touchpoint that encourages people to pause for a moment and take notice of the vital work carried out by Doctors Without Borders. If our campaign helps increase donations for humanitarian aid, it has achieved its purpose,” explains Elke Reibetanz, Managing Partner at Mediaplus Berlin.
The campaign was developed through close collaboration between Doctors Without Borders, the Mediaplus Berlin team and the Mediaplus Creative Collective, led by Global CCO Maximilian Schöngen, with the Collective also leading the creative execution. The core concept behind the scented print ad was developed together with REPUBLIC Marketing & Media Solutions.
The campaign launched on 1 October and will run throughout November across print, retail and digital out-of-home channels.
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About Mediaplus
Mediaplus, headquartered in Munich, is one of Europe’s largest independent media agencies and part of the Serviceplan Group. The Mediaplus Group employs around 2,200 people in more than 20 wholly owned offices worldwide and has a presence in over 40 locations, including partner offices. Its services span Media Strategy & Innovation, Media Planning & Buying, Data & AI, Performance Marketing, Advertising Technology, and Commerce & Retail Media. As an owner- and partner-led company, Mediaplus stands for personal responsibility, long-term client relationships, a drive to innovate and entrepreneurial thinking. True to its claim “People. Pioneering. Progress.”, Mediaplus combines strategic consulting with data and AI expertise and a deep understanding of brand and business growth. Through “House of AI”, the group-wide AI framework, it pairs proprietary data models with in-depth market expertise. Mediaplus has been repeatedly recognized in the WARC Media 100 and the RECMA Quality Ranking, and in 2026 was named Media Agency of the Year at the German Media Awards for the fifth time.