It’s the little things in life that count. I guess that’s why US Airways was able to keep a straight face while admitting last week that it plans to begin selling ad space on its airsick bags by September.

Yes, the "barf bag billboard" concept appears to be legit. According to an Associated Press dispatch from July 19, a US Airways spokesman said the idea is to make multiple use of the rarely-used emergency envelopes.

While passengers and shareholders might mistake the move as a sign of desperation, aviation consultant Michael Boyd calls it brilliant. “Barf bags have a lot of shelf life,’’ he says in the article. “People aren't barfing as much in planes as they used to."

Well, you can imagine the field day blogosphere funsters are having with this story. “Someone apparently misunderstood the concept of viral marketing,’’ writes Dustin Staiger, author of a blog called Casual Fridays. “Sure, it would be a horrible idea for CBS to advertise their new Fall lineup of shows on barf bags, but there are other marketers for whom this may be a perfect fit.’’ He goes on to list those marketers with some very hilarious sample taglines.

In fact, US Airways isn’t the first to consider allowing retailers to hawk their wares in public spaces on board. Rumors of overhead bin space up for sale have been circulating for years. That would certainly add to the subway-in-the-sky ambiance of economy class air travel in 2006.

Several years ago, the carrier’s future partner, America West, introduced tray table marketing. Companies like Visa, Mercedes-Benz and The History Channel bought space there.

It’s also not the first time airsick bags have been used as ad space. A few people wrote in to Flyertalk about how, in the 1970s, bags on most of the majors carried ads from mail-in photo processors. Talk about multipurpose. The bags could be used for their original purpose or as photo envelopes.

To see what each carriers’ bags look like now, go to the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum, maybe the strangest travel-related site I’ve ever come across. 

Write to: Barbara Correa at bboydstoncorrea@yahoo.com