A Bun in the Oven

January 18th, 2011

I imagine the pride I feel for my hometown of Minneapolis is something akin to the pride a parent feels – well maybe not quite – but for the moment, Minneapolis is the apple of my eye. I recently came across a short article featuring an innovative advertisement in the form of a bus stop created by the local Colle + McVoy ad agency, who is responsible for the rebranding of Caribou Coffee. Bus stops have long been the eyesores of architects and urban planner, but the canvas of the advertiser. This cheeky little bus stop is not only an effective advertisement, but its also useful and aestetically pleasing in the way that midcentury roadside architecture mimicked the food it sold (ie. a hotdog shaped hotdog stand). In the form of an oven, complete with dials and an overhead heating coil, Colle + McVoy reinvented the means for selling hot breakfast sandwiches for Caribou Coffee. With January temperatures commonly at -15 F (-26 C) or below, you can understand the brilliance and sainthood of this advertisement. For those of you who have never experienced a Minnesota winter, or for those like me who have nostalgic memories of them, I've included a few images of the snow Minneapolis has accumulated this winter.