A Piece of Fresh Air from the French Countryside: Air de Montquc

Scented marketing reaches new heights and the inventiveness of a young Frenchman crashes the meters of ingenuity. Are you having writer's block, a lack of creativity in your everyday life, an obstacle in the flow of the elixir vitae in your system? Don't worry, fresh air (but not just ANY fresh air, mind you) will take care of all those ailments. How would you like to literally buy the fresh air of the French countryside? Without putting a foot on French soil, that is? It's all possible, now. Someone has bottled the air of their small town and sells it by the quarter of a liter!

That someone is called Antoine and is a student of Communications who has lived in Montcuq for 7 years. He recounts his story on this link.
Montcuq is a small town in a region of France close to the Iberian peninsula, close to the Pyrenees. But the product doesn't make concessions: since it's air (well…) it has to be "consumed" all at once and you are not supposed to leave the box open, lest it evaporates too soon! The dedicated site is as bold as to claim "in order not to evacuate Montcuq of its fresh air, we limit our harvest at 10 litres of air per week". (Epic!)

The Facebook page has already amassed so many Likes that "the inventor" is promising a surprise when they reach 2000 Likes, proving that in the age of technology it suffices to ripple the pond for the ripples to reach unexpected lengths or that people have an astounding sense of humor (or desperation, take it how you will).

So for the advantageous price of 5€ you can now own 250ml of fresh Montcuq air! Or if you want the more "luxurious" Gold Edition (albeit only in packaging, as the air is…funnily enough…the same) for 12€! By the time I got to actually write this post the limited edition of 50 boxes of the Gold Edition are gone, which makes me laugh uncontrollably. Ain't life grand!

The "product" is shipped to the European Union, Switzerland, USA and Canada and anyone else can email to ask for specifics.

The box bears the distinctive disclaimer "Mise en boite a Montcuq" as if to guarantee its authenticity. Its' now literally possible to buy "hot air". To revert the famous line from Asterix "Ils sont fous ces Gaulois".

What's next? To get inspired by the pun-y name of the village itself, L'Air de Mon Cul, freshly gathered from my toilet. I bet there will be a few people actually buying it. Now, let me think of a business model…