Corporations have long been supporters of the arts, but London’s Heathrow Airport is pushing the concept to the extreme by hiring writer Alain de Botton as its writer-in-residence. In exchange for its no-doubt generous funding, de Botton will spend one week at the airport and write a book about his experience. The book will be entitled A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary, and 10,000 copies will be given away to passengers in September 2009.

Heathrow has provided de Botton with a desk at Terminal Five and free access around the airport. De Botton claims he has free rein as to what he writes about. When this Guardian article was published, de Botton had already explored the baggage delivery system and visited Gate Gourmet, which produces in-flight meals. De Botton planned to interview airport and airline executives as well.

While the writer-in-residence program may seem innovative to some, others have already found it worthy of ridicule. Media website Gawker posted an article about de Botton’s deal entitled “Boring Airport Book Contract Better Than No Book Contract.”