AM Philadelphia Interviews Dr. Cutler about the launch of her pheromone product

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(10/21/93)

So how much would you pay to increase your sex appeal?

Later in the show we will talk to a local scientist who is now selling, for $98.50, little bottles of a type of love potion just for women.

Host, Lizbeth Starr: Do you remember that old song from the sixties, Love Potion no 9?, That one was cooked up by a gypsy, this one is made by a biologist…

Just as in the world of four legged creatures, the female of the human species sends off subconscious smells to attract the male.

They’re called pheromones. This Main Line biologist was part of the team at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986 that figured out how to isolate it, extract it from people, freeze it and reconstitute it.

And now she’s synthesized it, bottled it, is patenting it and she’s selling it. It’s marketed as Athena Pheromone 1013 and is available only by mail order from the scientist’s own wellness center for women, the Athena Institute.

Until now they have been mainly concerned with offering workshops, collecting data on maturing women’s health, and selling books.

But now Dr. Winnifred Cutler, Ph.D.(click for bio), is bottling a substance that some call a love potion, and the shipping department is on the ping pong table on the garden level in her house.

WC: We’re selling a cosmetic fragrance additive.

LS: But what are you selling Dr. Cutler?

WC: Oh, were selling sex appeal. That’s what it is.

LS: And do you think you can really apply it? Sex appeal is something you can manufacture and put it in a bottle?

WC: No. I think we can sell a pheromone, which when added to a {woman's fragrance} who can then appreciate the changes she starts to feel, she exudes the sex appeal. This is a trigger.

According to the directions, the pheromone formula is mixed with a woman's favorite perfume. … (Dr. Cutler demonstrates)

LS: How do you as a scientist separate out women feeling better because they have perfume on daily vs women who are benefiting from your additive?

WC: Well, the original study had no fragrance in it and it (the pheromone formula) was effective as an unappetizing, alcohol based liquid.

LS: So why add it to perfume then?

WC: Because it is aesthetically more pleasant, a woman can incorporate it into her beauty routine.

Even as the product is being sold, it is being subjected to a second level of testing, this time women wearing it as the marketing suggests.

Meet “Sara” (hidden) - She’s 49 years old, self employed, creative, divorced, and dating.

Sara: I’d like to think that it would take the credit for making me attractive to somebody, but then I can take over being the kind of person who someone would remain attractive to.

(Sara) saw this ad in a business women’s newsletter placed by Athena looking for testers.

She told us that while it didn’t happen right away, for instance the first day she put it on, that in a few weeks more men are flirting with her.

Sara: I had a waiter walk over to me and ask what is that perfume you're wearing, he wanted to get it for his girlfriend.

WC: I think when a woman feels attractive, she starts to discover that in feeling attractive, she attracts people to her and she sets in motion a fluid circle. And she can’t say where one thing ends and another begins.

LS: So you’re not making promises but it’s very enticing. But you don’t think your selling snake oil.

WC: Oh absolutely not. I am hearing two different kinds of reports, one is ‘I am attracting people to me and I never did before, (as you saw with Sara).

The other thing: Women are finding sexual pleasure in their long term relationships. It’s awakening romance in relationships that are stable, that are monogamous, that the women want to stay monogamous. And they’re delighted to find it’s like a second honeymoon they’re experiencing.

LS – Dr. Cutler, you’re a married woman, are you using it?

WC – (smiling) I would never want to announce something that my husband wouldn’t know because I think a woman should keep some mystery. I can tell you I totally believe in this product.

COMMENT FROM ATHENA INSTITUTE: Both Athena Pheromone 10:13^tm for women and Athena Pheromone 10X^tm for men are cosmetics that can increase your attractiveness to the opposite sex. Neither product is an “aphrodisiac.”