Opinion The Third Edit: Hold on, canned Lake Como Air may have something vital to offer
It is easy to dismiss it as perpetuating a consumerist culture where even a wisp of breath can be if it has the vaguest connection to a celebrity. But the story of a Canadian company selling canisters of fresh ‘Rocky Mountain air’ suggests that there may be something deeper.
Selling air may be provocative and “fun”, but it is certainly not an original idea. 
As far as celebrity memorabilia go, toenails and used napkins are passé. No matter where one is in the world, it is now possible to breathe the same air as George and Amal Clooney — without having to pay thousands of dollars for it. For as low as €10 ($11), tourists visiting Italy can now buy cans containing 400 ml of “100 per cent authentic air” collected from Lake Como, close to where the Clooneys own a house. Marketed particularly to appeal to American vacationers, the souvenir has been described by its creators, the communications company ItalyComunica, as “something original, fun and even provocative”.
Selling air may be provocative and “fun”, but it is certainly not an original idea. Soon after World War II, an Italian businessman found a novel use for the empty cans left behind by US troops. He filled them with air, calling the product “Aria di Napoli” meaning “air of Naples” and began selling them back to the Americans as souvenirs. New York City went one step further — selling not just generic NYC air, but an especially curated air formula “concocted with equal parts Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal, Chrysler Building, Statue Of Liberty” and other landmarks.
While it is easy to dismiss these cans of air as merely perpetuating an out-of-control consumerist culture where anything, even a wisp of breath, can be packaged and sold as long as it has the vaguest connection to a celebrated person or landmark, the story of a Canadian company selling canisters of fresh “Rocky Mountain air” suggests that there may be something deeper, more vital to the appeal. In 2015, the company found that hundreds of its products sold out within weeks in Beijing. Turns out, citizens in the Chinese capital, which at the time had a reputation for noxious air, especially in the winter months, were simply gasping for something cleaner. As residents of Delhi-NCR struggle to breathe amid poor AQI, perhaps some Lake Como air could come to the rescue?
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