furthermore , arden noted , ishmail bore the familiar , comforting smell of johnston and johnstons baby powder so depended upon by superstitious mothers as opposed to an expensive , overpowering , status-indicating cologne endorsed by some american singer ( or sporting star ) that many young indian men were these days blowing their hard-won cash on ( simply because a public figure they admired lied on tv and said it helped him [ the implication being that it helped him with the girls , although tv ads were rarely ever straight forward and direct about male/female relationships anyway ] ) .