Was that a giant toaster you saw in Toronto this morning? Yes, it was. Dempster’s has launched a country-wide tour with its massive “Pop Up Bakery” giving out up to 900 fresh samples of its new bagel to unsuspecting Canadians at every stop.

Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto saw the first batch of bagels this morning and the giant toaster will continue to make its way to other locations in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. The experiential stunt was created and executed by Steel Space Productions.

The Canada Bread Company-owned brand is jumping on the bandwagon of days dedicated to something this week (along with WWF’s National Sweater Day and the  Bell “Let’s Talk” campaign), having launched the “Pop Up Bakery” tour on National Bagel Day.

Sampling of the bagel doesn’t stop at the giant toaster, though, as Doyle Brown, senior marketing manager, Canada Bread Company tells MiC that the brand will also be giving out coupons at transit stations and there will be an extensive direct-to-home coupon distribution.

“We think the key is to let people try it, the proof is in the product,” he says. “Our hope is, with the sampling and a lot of the awareness efforts we’re doing, that we will be able to reinvigorate the category from a retail perspective.”

Using old creative with the addition of a nine-second tag informing consumers of the new bagel product, TV spots were created by agency JWT and placed by the in-house media team at Maple Leaf Foods (which owns Canada Bread Company) on conventional and specialty channels, says Brown.