Fox

And now a topic of great social and political import. The Kwik-E-Mart lives!!

7-11 and Twentieth Century Fox have teamed up to turn some 7-11’s into Kwik-E-Marts, stocked with many well known items from the long running Simpson’s cartoon.

Commentary and pictures here

If you’ve ever wondered how pervasive Hollywood marketing efforts could get, then look no further than the merchandising wizards at Twentieth Century Fox. In order to hype the upcoming release of “The Simpsons Movie,” the studio has teamed with 7-Eleven to equip stores across the country with “Simpsons”-branded items, and to turn 11 hand-picked locations into full-blown, real-life Kwik-E-Mart’s, Springfeld’s ubiquitous convenience store.

Since one of the chosen shops was just a couple of blocks from the MTV offices, I hiked over there to witness the hubbub for myself. Whereas other stores have completely draped their building facades in the show’s Kwik-E-Mart theme, in this instance the limitations of residing in New York City forced the company to adapt a more toned-down approach. That said, all mentions of 7-Eleven on the storefront were gone, replaced by movie-advertising-safe Kwik-E-Mart branding and signs for the “First Bank of Springfield.” From a pure business standpoint, that takes some stones on 7-Eleven’s part. I realize “The Simpsons” are firmly entrenched in the American pop culture zeitgeist, but still…it’s a friggin’ cartoon. But whatever, in I went. After the jump, photos and commentary galore.