Silent Bob Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 Can't believe we don't have a thread for this yet. Anyway, I just wanted to post this: Best. Movie. Promotion. Ever. A dozen 7-Elevens across the country have been completely converted (temporarily) to Kwik-E-Marts. There's one here in Orlando, too (sorry, Miami...uh...Miaminites)
MetalHeart Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 We have one here in Dallas, too! I'm going to go there very soooon and bask in The Simpson's Kwik-E-Mart greatness!!
Aartemys Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 Yeah, I got so pissed when MH posted the article in Blargh! and I saw that they didn't do one over here... Stupid feckers! I can't wait to see this one...I saw the trailer last week and got excited...man, I remember the Simpson's from when they were a sketch in the Tracy Ullman Show...
Boogie Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 The excitment for this one has reach new levels!! Can't wait to see the movie. It's going to be a fresh air in a sea of shit (that is, of course, the newest seasons). I wish they would do this kind of stuff worldwide... I wanna shop in a Kwik-E-Mart!!!
Acalis Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 I am SOOOOOO going to see this movie!!! I saw about those 7-11 Kwik-E-Mart promotions on the news. What I'd love to know is, would they be selling slurpees still, or are they changing it to squishees for the promo as well? Also another great promo is in theaters, remake the Icee cups so they say "squishee" on it.
MetalHeart Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 They are changing it to Squishies!!! They may have them in every 7-11. Even though only select locations are going to be transformed into Kwik-E-Marts for the month long promotion, each 7-11 is going to have certain products and merchandise to go around.
Silent Bob Posted July 5, 2007 Author Posted July 5, 2007 Yep, only 12 have become Kwik-E-Marts but they should all be selling Squishees, Krusty-Os cereal, Buzz Cola, the Radioactive Man comic book and the official pink movie donut. Sorry, no Duff Beer as far as I know.
Acalis Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 Are any of those 12 Kwik-E-Mart-converted 7-11s gonna be in the South Florida area?
Aartemys Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 ...no MH posted the article back in BLARGH! a few days ago...I'd link it to ya, but I am lazy, lol...
soldier of fortune Posted July 5, 2007 Posted July 5, 2007 I just hope the movie doesn't suck like most of the recent new episodes, though the one with Jack Bauer in was quite good. Oh and if some one were to pick up a radioactive man comic and send it to me, i'd be forever indebted to you!
MetalHeart Posted July 6, 2007 Posted July 6, 2007 On the movie website, you can make your own Simpson's character!! This is the one I made because I thought it looked pretty: But this one is prolly more true to life:
crimsonfire Posted July 6, 2007 Posted July 6, 2007 Holy shit! Thats so bloody cool. Why does all the cool shit like that only happen in America? Most i got in the cinema tonight was my popcorn bag had Homer on it... But as i said in the transformers thread. Me and DoJ are doin Transformers/Simpsons movie day seen as they come out the same weekend.
MetalHeart Posted July 6, 2007 Posted July 6, 2007 http://www.7-eleven.com/kem.asp Promotion turns 7-Eleven stores into 'Simpsons' Kwik-E-Marts 07/01/2007 By DAVID KOENIG / Associated Press Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of "The Simpsons" fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art. Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees. It's all part of a campaign to hype next month's opening of "The Simpsons Movie," the big-screen debut for the long-running television cartoon, which loves to lampoon 7-Eleven as a store that sells all kinds of unhealthy snacks and is run by a man with a thick Indian accent. For 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Homer's creators at Gracie Films, the stunt is a cheap way to call attention to their movie, since 7-Eleven is bearing all the costs, which executives of the retail chain put at somewhere in the single millions. At 7-Eleven, they're hoping it shows the ubiquitous chain has a trait seen in few corporations â۠the ability to laugh at themselves. "We thought if you really want to do something different, the idea of actually changing stores into Kwik-E-Marts was over the top but a natural," said Bobbi Merkel, an executive for of 7-Eleven's advertising agency, FreshWorks, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. "It shows they get the joke." The monthlong promotion has been rumored a long time â۠it's hard to keep a secret known by so many suppliers and franchisees â۠but 7-Eleven managed to keep the locations of the stores quiet until early Sunday morning. That's when the exteriors of 11 U.S. stores and one in Canada were flocked in industrial foam and given new signs to replicate the animated look of Kwik-E-Marts. The U.S. locations where a 7-Eleven store was transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart are New York City; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Burbank, Calif.; Los Angeles; Henderson, Nev.; Orlando, Fla.; Mountain View, Calif.; Seattle; and Bladensburg, Md. The idea grew out of conversations between Fox and 7-Eleven's advertising agency. "We wanted to make sure the movie stands out as a true cultural event this summer," said Lisa Licht, a marketing vice president at Fox. "It has to stand out from other summer movies and TV shows." The Fox/7-Eleven deal is an example of a practice called reverse product placement. Instead of just putting products prominently in a movie or TV show, fake goods move from the screen to reality. In some cases, 7-Eleven has contracted with manufacturers of similar products to make their Kwik-E-Mart counterparts. Malt-O-Meal, the Northfield, Minn., cereal maker, will conjure up a recipe for KrustyO's, for example. In others, existing products will simply be renamed. 7-Eleven's own Slurpee will be sold as a Squishee for the month. Other recent examples of reverse product placement include Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, which spun out of the Harry Potter books and movies, and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurants, which opened after the movie "Forrest Gump." 7-Eleven has done other movie-themed promotions, including one this spring for the latest Spiderman installment. After Fox pitched a 7-Eleven tie-in last year, representatives from the studio, the stores, and Gracie Films â۠including Simpsons creator Matt Groening and executive producer James L. Brooks, met in Los Angeles to kick around ideas. Brooks added one â۠holding a contest to let one fan be drawn into a future episode of the TV show. 7-Eleven executives loved the idea. They had surveys showing a strong overlap between their customers and fans of the show â۠both tend to be young and male. It sounded like cash registers ringing. "They've been looking at Squishees and KrustyO's and Buzz Cola for years and have never been able to put their hands on it," said Merkel, the advertising executive. But they won't find Duff beer, the brand chugged by Homer Simpson. The movie will be rated PG-13, and selling a Simpson-themed beer "didn't seem to fit," said Rita Bargerhuff, a 7-Eleven marketing executive. "That was a tough call, but we want to make sure it's considered good, responsible fun." Bargerhuff predicted extra sales to Simpsons fans will more than offset the cost of the promotion and create new customers for the chain. She also said the chain is prepared for crowds and will have extra security and clerks at the Kwik-E-Marts. The promotion, however, is not risk-free. The proprietor of Kwik-E-Mart is a man named Apu who speaks in a heavy Indian accent. He is based on a manager Groening encountered while shopping at a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles nearly 20 years ago and plays to stereotypes about convenience-store operators and Asian immigrants. Many of 7-Eleven's franchisees are Indian, company officials say, although they say they don't track exact numbers. Bargerhuff said they were "overwhelmingly positive" after hearing of the Kwik-E-Mart idea, but "it was not a 100 percent endorsement." "There was definitely a concern of offending people," she said. "But they seemed to understand that 'The Simpsons' makes fun of everybody. The vast majority saw this as a great opportunity." That's the case for Kumar Assandas, a 28-year-old franchisee whose parents immigrated from India. His store in suburban Las Vegas is one of the temporary Kwik-E-Marts. "I know it's a stereotype, but it doesn't bother me. Everybody knows it's a joke," Assandas said. "I'm a big Simpsons fan myself, and maybe subconsciously it even inspired me to become a 7-Eleven owner."
Silent Bob Posted July 6, 2007 Author Posted July 6, 2007 I'm following suit with MH... I wanna make one, but seeing as they have about four whole facial hair options and none of them resemble me whatsoever, it didn't quite work
Reverend Jax Posted July 6, 2007 Posted July 6, 2007 If only you could make one without facial hair and add some in later, but in order do do that, you would have to have natural artistic abilities, lots of practice doing cartoonish drawings, have gone to several years of art school and have one of those fancy tablet-thingies for drawing directly into a paint/photo-editing program. Alas, you have none of those things to help you draw a beard on to a beardless Simpsons avatar. The cards were stacked against you DJ, nothing to do now but throw in the towel and admit there was nothing you could do.
La Lindsay Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 man, I remember the Simpson's from when they were a sketch in the Tracy Ullman Show... that should be in one of those "you know you were raised in the 80s when..." emails and myspace bulletins
Acalis Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 Just FYI everyone, if you want a quick link to the Official Simpsons Movie website, just click on the poster on my sig file.
Boogie Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 Just FYI everyone, if you want a quick link to the Official Simpsons Movie website, just click on the poster on my sig file. Nothing happened...
Acalis Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 The pic didn't take properly so I had to remove it, sorry
Aartemys Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 For shame...for everyone else, you can just click here! You know, Jont made Simpsons characters and posted it on MySpace...they were good...wonder why he hasn't put them on here?
Jont Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 I've been away for a while, so I haven't been posting anything, besides, most of the people are non Hondonians, but you can see them on my Flickr page, the last two are me and my brother, who was a Hondonian himself not so long ago.
Boogie Posted July 26, 2007 Posted July 26, 2007 Yaayyy!!! Tomorrow its the big opening!! Next week I'm gonna see it. In the meantime I made my simpsons characther... Later I'll post the pic.
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