Searching for new ways to entice marketers, newspapers are looking to make scratch-and-sniff advertisements a new part of print advertising.

The Los Angeles Times will carry a scratch-and-sniff ad Sunday in a 32-page autumn films section. The advertisement, for “Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium,” will smell like frosted cake, according to a Tuesday New York Times article.

“We're trying to be more creative ... to stay relevant and keep the reader engaged,” Lynne Segall, vice president for entertainment and fashion advertising at The Times is quoted as saying in the article.

The studio releasing the film Nov. 16, Fox Walden, is spending more than $110,000 on the sales package that includes the scented ad. Comparatively, a full-page colour advertisement in The Times, without scent and sales package, costs $55,000. Fox Walden is a joint venture between Walden Media and the 20th Century Fox segment of the News Corporation.

Jeffrey Godsick, marketing president at Fox Walden, told The Times the ad ties in perfectly with the movie, about a toy store where toys come alive. The scented ad “will increase the time people spend with the ad and the pass-around factor.” It will also involve readers, asking them to “experience the magic,” by scratching pictures of toys surrounding the film's stars, Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman.

To avoid complaints due to the ad causing the entire section, or entire paper, to smell like frosted cake, the ad was designed to smell only when it is scratched, Segall told The Times.