Company floats ads in 'clouds' shaped like corporate logos

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The foam is environmentally safe because it's mostly water, air and a soapy agent that creates bubbles, Guerra says. Flogos pop just like bubbles and disappear when they hit a tree or building, sometimes leaving a powdery residue that blows away.

A single Flogo can travel as far as 30 miles and as high as 20,000 feet, Guerra says, and a machine can produce one every 15 seconds. Guerra says he could put a half-dozen machines together and fill the sky with almost any shape a company orders.

Imagine a line of drifting Flogos shaped like the Honda logo leading to a car dealership and you get the idea.

A professor who specializes in environmental issues and public policy said Flogos didn't sound like a pollution hazard if they're really just specially formulated soap and water.

"It sounds like it's harmless, but there's a lot of stuff that we thought was harmless that turned out not to be," said Jerry Emison, a professor of political science and public administration and Mississippi State University.

Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta, said she had not dealt with the company before but it appears Flogos would fall under FAA rules pertaining to events like balloon launches. She said a local FAA office would need to be contacted before a Flogo launch so that pilots could be notified about it.

The company has lined up international distributors in Australia, Germany, Mexico and Singapore. A machine rents for about $3,500 a day, Guerra said.

Matt Leible of New York-based Generation Outdoor, an ad agency specializing in outdoor advertising, said companies can spend $5,000 a day for a big banner with graphics towed by an airplane, and skywriting can cost $4,500.

Want to rent a blimp like Goodyear's- That's $250,000 a month, and companies typically want a six-month minimum, Leible said.

James Twitchell, a professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, compared Flogos to airplanes pulling banners over football games, spotlights with corporate logos and an old imagined scheme to put an advertisement into orbit that would be visible at sunset.

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