OOH ads provide warmer shelter

Toaster bus shelter

Photo courtesy Colle+McVoy

Just in time for sub-zero winter temperatures, an out-of-home (OOH) ad campaign for Caribou Coffee’s hot breakfast sandwiches transformed three bus shelters into giant toaster ovens to help waiting passengers feel warmer.

Marketing agency Colle+McVoy came up with the idea, which combines digitally printed graphics depicting Caribou’s new Daybreaker sandwiches with electrically powered ceiling-mounted heating coils, oversized toaster oven control knob props and working light-emitting diode (LED) clocks.

The ads debuted in January in Minneapolis, Minn., as local temperatures dipped to –20 C (–4 F). The shelters, owned by CBS Outdoor Media, were already connected to electrical power for their regular lighting.

“When you stand in the shelter, you can feel some heat,” Colle+McVoy creative director Eric Husband told the Toronto Star, “but at 20 below, trying to measure that heat is like trying to boil the ocean!”