Choosing a busy shopping area in the middle of Beijing, with this kind of eye-catching 7-meter high, 9-meter long exhaust cloud was a first. As using real exhaust would have been a fire hazard, an air compressor, hidden in the car’s trunk, pumped air through the doctored exhaust pipe into the balloon. To add to its reality, recorded engine sounds played from under the car’s hood.

“Black Cloud” received national and international attention, gaining millions of dollars of exposure. The event was covered by a variety of Chinese newspapers as well as Beijing TV, Phoenix TV, CCTV, even news stations as far away as Deutsche Welle Broadcasting in Germany and Al Jazeera in the Middle East.