Drinks cans containing nothing but Lake Como ‘air’ go on sale

Tourists who are visiting Lake Como in Italy are now able to buy cans of “fresh air” for €9.90 (US$11) apiece.

The marketing move, led by communications company ItalyComunica, has forgone filling the cans with any drink and instead will sell them with nothing other than “air” from the region.

According to CNN, the decision to sell the canned air is simply a novel way for people to buy a souvenir and revealed that each can contains 400 millilitres of “100% authentic air” that has been carefully collected from Lake Como.

More than 5.6 million people visited Lake Como in Italy in 2023, and, according to the Lombardy tourism bureau, the visitor numbers are rising, giving the region broad appeal.

According to reports, the decision to market the cans of air came from marketing specialist Davide Abagnale, who initially saw an opportunity when he started with selling Lake Como posters online.

Explaining more about the initiative to can the air from the area, a spokesperson for the business told CNN, that Abagnale wanted to offer “something original, fun and even provocative” as well as “create a souvenir that could be easily transported in a suitcase for tourists”.

Abagnale explained how the cans, which rather than contain any liquid, subvert the norm and give people something closer to a “memory” rather than a “product”.

He told CNN: “It’s not a product, it’s a tangible memory that you carry in your heart,” and suggested that once tourists returned home and opened the can, they could potentially repurpose the can as a souvenir pen holder.

Despite interest in the cans, not everyone is convinced of this marketing route. For instance, Lake Como mayor Alessandro Rapinese admitted that it wouldn’t be his first idea for tourists, and also hinted he would have preferred that people visiting the area take home other souvenirs that celebrate its attributes and skillset of its residents, such as the region’s silk scarves for which it is also well-known.

Rapinese added: “It’s a novel idea, but not for everyone. But as mayor of one of Italy’s most beautiful cities, if someone wants to take some of their air home, that’s fine as long as they also take beautiful memories of this area.”

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