Using what appears to be a business plan inspired by the movie "Spaceballs," Kirill Rudenko, a Prague-based photographer, is selling "canned air" from Paris, New York and other major cities for $9.99 a pop.
The 3-and-a-half-inch cans--available through Rudenko's Etsy.com shop--come with wine-like labels that disclose the blend of concentrated air inside.
The Paris air formula, for example, is:
20% The Louvre
20% Notre Dame
25% Eiffel Tower
15% Musée d'Orsay
10% Champs-Elysées
10% Sacre Coeur
New York's can contains:
20% Empire State Building
10% Grand Central Terminal
10% Chrysler Building
20% Statue of Liberty
10% Little Italy, Chinatown
10% Brooklyn Bridge
10% Times Square
10% Central Park
Rudenko claims the "fresh air" from New York "relieves stress, cures homesickness and helps fighting nostalgia," though it "may contain traces of Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens or Staten Island."
In "Spaceballs," the 1987 comedy directed by Mel Brooks, Planet Spaceball wasted its air, and President Skroob--played by Brooks--is seen huffing bottles of Perri-Air.
But as Rundown.com pointed out, Rudenko may have been equally inspired by the Italian artist Piero Manzoni, who in 1961 sold 90 cans that purportedly contained his own feces. And Manzoni's "Merda d'artista" had similar labeling.
Hopefully Rudenko's cans smell better.
Below, the aforementioned "Spaceballs" scene.