If you live in New York City; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Burbank, California; Los Angeles, California; Henderson, Nevada; Orlando, Florida; Mountain View, California; Seattle, Washington; or Bladensburg, Maryland, and your a Simpsons Fan, get over to 7-Eleven!If you're a Simpson's fan, get into 7-Eleven now! CNN.com reports that over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores in these markets into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of "The Simpsons" TV show fame.
It's a month long promotion that ties into the new highly anticipated Simpsons movie that opens on July 27. The remaining 6,000 + 7-Eleven stores will get in one the act selling products that until now existed only on the TV cartoon show. Stop in for Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees (a slushy Slurpee knockoff). If you snooze you lose because these products will only be around for a little while. Then they'll be available only on eBay ...
We love the signs: "Our hot dogs are rich in bunly goodness." and "Every item guaranteed fresh or your money begrudgingly returned." Check out the video here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/02/7.eleven.kwik.e.mart.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
You've heard of product placement -- product used or in visible places in TV shows and movies. The Fox/7-Eleven deal is called "reverse product placement". Instead of just putting products prominently in a movie or TV show, fake goods move from the screen to reality.
CNN.com mentions other examples of reverse product placement. Harry Potter brought us "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans", Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurants opened after the movie "Forrest Gump." 7-Eleven has done other movie-themed promotions, including one this spring for the latest Spiderman movie.
What other pop culture things
should YOU be aware of?
How about the arrival of the latest Harry Potter book? Amazon.com has pre-ordered 1.6 million copies of the final Harry Potter book. Stores across the country are gearing up for all kinds of Harry Potter events, including accommodating the lines of people who will begin lining up hours -- even days -- before the July 21 release date.
Our favorite bookstore, Town House Books, near our office in St. Charles, Illinois, will begin selling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at midnight. Owner David Hunt knows you have to give your customers what they want, when they want it, they way that they want it. And his customers want the latest Harry Potter book before anyone else gets theirs. Makes sense. Town House Books will sell more Harry Potter books before their competition opens for business at 10:00 AM.
The latest Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is in theaters now and the new book drops in 19 days. That's plenty of time to think up an event to bring a few hundred of Harry's biggest fans to your store. Visit Harry's website for ideas: http://harrypotter.com/
