You'll glove Minnesota's first-ever snowball vending machine
There's no business like snow business -- if you're willing to pay a dollar for a substance that you could just scoop off the ground for free.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
As a Minnesota native, I can tell you from experience: If there's one thing you don't need to pay for in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, it's snow. But this week, as the Twin Cities prepare to host the Super Bowl on Sunday, an enterprising ad agency, Space150, has decided to monetize the white stuff.
In Minneapolis' North Loop (pretty sure we just called it the Warehouse District back when I worked there), there's a temporary vending machine selling snowballs for $1. All proceeds go to local nonprofit Wilderness Inquiry.
Remember, the people who are putting a dollar into the machine are already surrounded by snow... that they could pick up and pack into a ball for free. Although the snowballs do come out in cute little cans, so football fans can take them back home to Boston or Philadelphia, where they can proudly show off a can full of... Minnesota water.
They're carefully made, too. Nick Nelson, a Space150 employee, told the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune newspaper that he covered his hands with wax and then helped make the snowballs by hand.
"Mittens can't get the consistency you need," he told the paper. "It's just quality control and pride in your work."
Hey, if you say snow.