HONG KONG — ‘‘Do your feeble breathing skills let you down? Does standing up tire you out?’’ The answer: Buy a breath or two of ‘‘Fresh Air’’ — the ‘‘revolutionary new product’’ that lets you experience breathing ‘‘like the rest of the world does.’’
It comes in a baby-blue canister complete with breathing mask, and in a variety of ‘‘flavors,’’ including vanilla and beach. And it can be yours for only 2 Hong Kong dollars, or about 25 cents. Hey, you can even get six for the price of one, and they’ll throw in a holster, so you can enjoy breathing for “whole minutes at a time.”
‘‘Fresh Air’’ is the new campaign tool of Hong Kong’s Clean Air Network, a nongovernmental group that promotes awareness of, you guessed it, the wretched air quality in this city of seven million.
The group’s latest campaign, featuring the popular Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu in a minute-and-a-half spoof of a 1980s-style infomercial, seems to have struck a chord here.
Its Cantonese-language version has had more than 143,000 views since it was posted on YouTube six days ago — it can also be seen in English — and has been widely shared on Facebook. It is also being shown in movie theater lobbies around town.
No wonder. Pollution is a perpetual bane in Hong Kong — because of both roadside pollution and fumes produced by factories across the border, in mainland Chinese cities like Shenzhen. The Clean Air Network estimates that the city’s air is three times more polluted than New York’s and more than twice as bad as London’s.
The timing of the new campaign could not have been better. It has coincided with the approach of autumn, when pollution levels generally soar. The last week has been especially tough on Hong Kong residents’ lungs and eyes; roadside stations in central Hong Kong on Wednesday measured levels classified as ‘‘very high.’’
The air may not be fresh, but the Clean Air Network’s new campaign approach is. The group decided to take a tongue-in-cheek approach rather than stick with the serious, public service announcement-style of previous campaigns.
‘‘We’re trying to reach younger people, who are in a way our pivotal audience, but whose apathy can be harder to break through,’’ said Joanne Ooi, the group’s chief executive. ‘‘That’s why it was important to have a celebrity and to use humor — to try a whole new angle.’’
Mr. Wu, who is especially popular with younger Hong Kongers, took no payment for his role in the ad — nor did the other actors and models who took part. As a result, the clip, shot in a single 16-hour day, cost only about 40,000 Hong Kong dollars — roughly $5,000 — to produce, Ms. Ooi said.
Clean Air will help you master ‘‘exciting new skills, like balloon animals and yodeling,’’ the bedimpled Mr. Wu, clad in a lilac sweater, says, beaming at the camera. And it will let you “blow out your birthday candles with confidence.”
But the final message is somber one: “If we do nothing about Hong Kong’s air pollution today,” it says, “we can look forward to this tomorrow.”