Buildings as billboards

There isn’t anything in America anymore that can’t be turned into a billboard. Now 3M has upped the game, turning its Maplewood headquarters into a billboard, using the same product it makes that wraps light-rail cars, for example, into rolling ads.

Give 3M credit. The billboard, which proclaims “Curiosity is just the beginning!”, provides a little whimsy on one of the most architecturally dull buildings in Minnesota, which is always ironic because the company has always been about innovation. And the color will be a nice break during the next Minnesota snowstorm.

And it’s not an ad, the company’s press release says. It’s a campaign — the Wonder Campaign — “to inspire people to examine the world around them and see that curiosity can lead to great discoveries.”

Related: DNR investigating 3M in new Wisconsin pollution case in wake of 2016 settlement that allowed the firm to avoid fines (Journal Sentinel)