scent of flowers, pizza, glue, gas, grass and feces. For the first DVD release the smell of glue was changed due to, as Waters states, "political correctness". The gimmick was advertised with the tag "It'll blow your nose!" After being prompted to scratch and sniff a bouquet of roses, viewers are subjected to a series of mostly foul-smelling odors, and thus fall victim to the director's prank. The ten smells (developed by 3M per Waters in the supplements section of the DVD release) are: Roses Flatulence Model airplane glue Pizza Gasoline Skunk Natural gas New car smell Dirty shoes Air freshener A video release omits the onscreen flashing numbers as well as the opening introduction explaining Odorama. This version, created by Lorimar-Telepictures, was shown on cable TV in the United States. The Independent Film Channel released reproduction Odorama cards for John Waters film festivals in 1999. Waters expressed his delight at having audiences actually "pay to smell shit" on the 2004 DVD release commentary track. Paramount Pictures, producers of Rugrats Go Wild, used the Odorama name and logo in 2003, somewhat upsetting Waters when he learned that New Line Cinema had let the copyright lapse. The 2011 film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World uses a scratch and sniff card now called "Aromascope", which is advertised as providing the fourth dimension in its "4D" format. Polyester was re-screened by Midnight Movies at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2011. The Odorama cards were recreated by Midnight Movies, Little Joe Magazine, and The Aroma Company to allow viewers to interact with the film as originally intended. Critical response Polyester received some positive reviews from the mainstream press. Said Janet Maslin of The New York Times: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 94% based on reviews from 31 critics, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The critics' consensus states, "As proudly tacky as its titular fabric, Polyester finds writer-director John Waters moving ever so slightly into the mainstream without losing any of his subversive charm.". In popular culture The 2000 single "Frontier Psychiatrist", by the Australian electronic music group The Avalanches, samples the film. References External links Polyester: The Perils of Francine an essay by Elena Gorfinkel at the Criterion Collection 1981 films 1980s black comedy films American black comedy films American independent films American satirical films Adultery in films Films about