- Raise your right arm.
You're being too hairy fairy here, love,
you need to get right in there (laughing)
So, I've been sniffing armpits now for about 23 years.
You know, I get people coming up to me
Do you have an armpit fetish or a foot fetish or something like that?
And the answer is no, actually, I think they're quite gross,
and the smell's horrendous on some people.
(sniffs) Holy mother of God! (laughs)
In the last 12 months, I made two million dollars.
There's a lot of money in deodorants and antiperspirants
and big cosmetic companies can see
the value in getting a product out there
that people really want to buy and repeat-purchase buy.
So, they'll send us maybe 10 different
strengths and concentrations of deodorant products
with a certain active in them,
and they'll ask us to find out for them
which is the best one of these 10
new products, and then they'll market that one product
that shows the most efficaciousness.
- [Narrator] New light powder ARRID Extra Dry.
- A little powder sure does a lot for an underarm spray.
- After finding out that Barrie makes two million dollars
by sniffing armpits, I decided to go pay him a visit
at Princeton Consumer Research.
Hi, Barrie.
- Hey, how you doing?
- Good, how are you doing?
- Yeah, good, thank you.
- All right, so tell me a little bit about
what we're going to be doing here today,
and about smelling armpits.
- So I'm gonna show you exactly what you need to know
on how to get a grade of an entry level of four
on our volunteers today.
So I'm gonna show you how to grade deodorant.
- What is the grading scale?
I know you mentioned a four, is it like one to four?
Or is it like one to a million?
- It's zero to 10.
- [Erica] Oh.
- Zero being no smell at all, to 10 being
the worst possible imaginary smell you can smell,
and then everything in between.
- [Erica] Oh nice.
- Let's do it. - All right, let's do this.
- Come on, let's dig in. (door handle clatters)
Okay, so I'm gonna grade, first of all,
under this subject's arm,
and my colleague Jerry's gonna do the same thing,
and then we're gonna show you how it rotates round.
But what I want you to do is have a smell as well.
- All right.
- Okay, so raise your right arm please.
Left arm.
Hmm.
Okay, so now, you've seen how we do it, you're gonna do it.
- Is there a that I should count to?
- No.
- Just however long my heart desires?
- Exactly, so it's whatever you think you need
to get that score.
So, we're gonna start with the right arm, and as you do it,
so, and what we don't wanna do is transfer
any of the smell from this into that one.
So when you've used one, use a fresh one for the other arm.
- Got it.
- Okay, so I'm gonna get out of your way.
- This is precisely how I wanted to spend a Wednesday.
(laughs)
- Okay, so on a scale
of one to 10, (claps)
what would you say he was?
- Three?
- But for me, he was pungent.
- Okay.
- So he stinks really bad.
- I don't wanna embarrass anybody. (laughs)
(snaps fingers)
- Go for it girl.
- I mean, we'll stay with three.
- So now you've done that one, let's swap.
Let's swap, and let's do the same thing again.
So one of these boys was treated, and one of them wasn't,
so let's do it all over again.
So raise your right arm.
You're being too hairy fairy here, love,
you need to get right in there. (Erica laughing)
- All good?
Good to go?
- [Barrie] All good.
Stick your nose right in and give it a good old sniff.
- Was that fine?
- Do you think it was fine?
- Yes?
- Did you smell something?
- Yes.
- So you gave that one a three,
what would you give this one?
- Let's go with seven?
(Barrie gasps)
- So you think he was that much stronger than the other one?
- Yes.
- Okay, let me smell that one.
Yeah, I think you're right. (Erica laughing)
- Oh, see, now I'm getting the hang of this.
- You're definite, do you want a job?
- No. (claps)
So how does one register to do this?
- You do it online, you go to our website,
princetonconsumer.com, go to the Volunteer section,
and just add your name and all your details,
and if and when a study comes up in your local area,
we'll email you.
- Well Barrie, this was extremely illuminating.
- Good.
- I feel like I learned so many things.
After experiencing this whole thing,
and smelling some things that I will never forget,
I don't think that I would want to do this
for two million dollars for a living.
You would have to up the money for that. (laughs)
This is a story that I'm gonna have for the rest of my life
and be able to tell friends at parties and whatnot
that, hey, one , I spent an afternoon smelling armpits,
and who gets to do that?
- The biggest tip I will give you is to actually
make sure you reapply,
some of you stink
really badly.
Your country's telling you, wear deodorant.
We don't like it when you stink. (laughs)