P. T. Barnum “hit the nail right on the head”…

from The Washington Post....

Would you pay $21 for 10 minutes of canned fresh air?

It's from Switzerland, you know.

By GENE MARKS | 3:23PM EDT - Tuesday, September 26, 2017

In this photo taken Friday, September 15th, 2017, British professional slackliner Sarah Rixham performs during the Highline Extreme event
on the top of the Moleson peak at 2,000 meters above sea level, in the Swiss Alps, near Fribourg, Switzerland.
— Photograph: Valentin Flauraud/Keystone/Associated Press.

KARACHI, PAKISTAN has the highest levels of ozone of any city in the world. Ammonia levels in Delhi, India exceed a “harmful” level more than 70 percent of the time. Other megacities cities like Beijing and even Los Angeles also have very poor air quality. That's according to a report published earlier this year by an environmental consulting firm that studied satellite data.

Which is all opportunity for a company called Swiss Alpine Air. The start-up wants to help people living in places with poor air quality by breathing cleaner and healthier air from the Swiss Alps. How? By selling canisters that provide 10 heavenly minutes of fresh mountain air to those customer willing to pay 19.95 Swiss Francs ($21).

“This product is for a population who live with terrible pollution every day, a pollution that may shorten their lives and cause debilitating health problems. One can of Swiss air is not the answer to their problems, but it is so nice to be able to breathe clean, fresh air even for a little while,” the company's CEO Danny Wurr told the Swiss English-language news site The Local.

It's not just potential customers in the metropolises of India, Pakistan, China and the United States that the company is pursuing. Wurr has his sights set on European commuters too. “I remember when they first put water in a bottle and put it on sale. How people laughed. Just look at the bottled water industry today. Air is already following the same patterns and the future is very bright indeed,” Wurr told The Local.

The concept is not exactly new. Wurr says that many people in China are “already buying” fresh air from Canada and Australia. But he believes the Swiss air is much better.

• Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania-based consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Marks is an author and a certified public accountant, and he writes regularly for The Washington Post's On Small Business blog.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2017/09/26/would-you-pay-21-for-10-minutes-of-canned-fresh-air