Blogging Kwik-E Mart
When the Simpsons Movie came out, there was a lot of interesting marketing that took place. The Burger King ads were largely a success. Homer did a guest spot on Leno, where he tried to guest host and bombed with a bunch of stale jokes. There were plenty of other ways that Groening and Fox tried to shill the movie, but one of the most interesting, by far, was 7-11’s willingness to remodel a few select stores into “Kwik-E Marts.” These strange portals into “Springfield,” covered most every aspects, from changing “Slurpees” into “Squishees” to stocking Homer’s favorite Duff Beer and life sized cut outs of Simpsons notables like Apu, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, and a few others. These stores brought out the ardent Simpsons fans, as well as curiosity seekers. The sad thing, however, was not everybody lived next to one of these places.
Well, the value of the internet, it seems, is that there’s just about everything for a blog these days. Somebody, it seems, chose to blog the Kwik-E Mart experience, and posted lots of pictures of the stores, with descriptions, at simpsonskwikemart.blogspot.com. (That’s where the “El Barto” graffiti picture from above comes from). The blog itself has finite coverage, as it contains only eleven posts from the month of July. Still, really, that’s all that’s needed. One gets a good sense from the posts what the real life Kwik-E Mart experience entailed. The time limit on these stores has come and gone. The movie has come in and out of theaters, and one doubts that DVD release will get the same treatment.
Simpsons, blogs, 7-11, stores, The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons
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