July 2, 2007

A case of 'Life imitating Bart'...

After 20 years of good-humored silence, 7-Eleven have decided to join in on the joke and will be redecorating twelve of their stores as Kwik-E-Marts, as part of the promotional campaign for the Simpsons movie that opens on July 27th. The decorated stores will sell KrustyO's frosted cereal, Buzz Cola, Kwik-E-Mart Squishees and even comics of Bart's hero, 'Radioactive Man.'

Most of the stores getting the do-over seem to be in the L.A. area, which is not surprising. What is surprising is the caliber of this event. It's a publicity stunt, but with a twist. Since opening for business in 1927, 7-Eleven has grown to over 30,000 stores and served a total volume of customers they probably couldn't even hope to quantify. Now they're allowing this well-loved, time-honored image to be unmistakably linked to a fictional store that is frequently held up, sells hot dogs so seasoned by time their sell-by dates are in Roman Numerals, and which even displayed a old guy for sale in the Freezer section.

This has to be the first promotional event in decades to involve something the public knows of and truly cares about? Recently incarcerated 'celebrities' and laughably under-talented singers whose idea of PR involves clambering out of cars without their underwear would be well advised to start taking notes.

No comments:

Creative Commons License
Ma.gnolia
blogarama - the blog directory


Powered by WebRing®.

Business Affiliate ProgramsDiscountsPersonalsAdvertisingShopping




This blog is written by Michael J. Austin.
Created in Linux, with Open-Source software.
Contact me at: HarlequinMail @ GMail.com