As part of the convenience chain’s month-long celebration leading up to THE SIMPSONS MOVIE debut, the company’s “Kwik-E-Marts” dressed-stores and its other outlets will offer limited quantities of KrustyO’s cereal and Buzz Cola, along with a Squishee-named Slurpee® frozen drinks. A special edition of a Radioactive Man comic book also was produced just for 7-Eleven. And, life-size “citizens of Springfield” can be seen in the stores.

Even the pink-frosted donut with sprinkles featured in THE SIMPSONS MOVIE poster is available exclusively at 7-Eleven stores. Unlike at the Kwik-E-Mart, the Sprinklicious donuts are made fresh and delivered daily to the stores.

Doug Foster, 7-Eleven's chief marketing officer, said “We get the joke and want to have a little fun with our customers and fans of The Simpsons. Visitors to the 7-Eleven-style ‘Kwik-E-Marts’ and our other stores will immediately realize the contrast between ours and the one parodied on The Simpsons show. They’ll see our quality fresh foods and popular services that real-life convenience-oriented consumers want.”

Perhaps the greatest online buzz since 7-Eleven contemplated converting selected stores into Kwik-E-Marts has been the question of where these stores will pop up. The answer is: in cities across the country – Manhattan, Bladensburg, Md., (outside Washington, D.C.); Orlando, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Henderson, Nev., Los Angeles and Burbank, Calif.; Mountain View, CA, (outside San Francisco) and Seattle. The 12th 7-Eleven Kwik-E-Mart location will be in Canada on July 3.

“As far as we know, this is the first time a major company has partnered with a fictional entity to bring it to life,” said Rita Bargerhuff, senior director for national marketing at 7-Eleven. “Many brands have product placement in a movie, but we were intrigued with the idea of bringing fiction to life – a ‘reverse placement,’ if you will. As the number-one show among men ages 18-34, teens, boys ages 12-17, and kids from 6 to 11, The Simpsons reaches our core customers. We believe our customers will be delighted to see a life-size Kwik-E-Mart store and have an opportunity to shop there.”

To up the reality quotient of the stores, 7-Eleven worked with suppliers to create some of the products available to the show’s fictitious Springfield residents. The product most reminiscent of a 7-Eleven mainstay is the Kwik-E-Mart Squishee, a take-off on the retailer’s iconic Slurpee® brand. The featured Slurpee flavor for July is WooHoo! Blue Vanilla, which can be served in a 22-ounce paper cup bearing the official Squishee logo. Five collectible, plastic Slurpee movie cups with various scenes from THE SIMPSONS MOVIE promise to be big-sellers along with six straws featuring removable character magnets. The straw magnets feature likenesses of The Simpsons family members plus Apu, the show’s Kwik-E-Mart proprietor, and have a suggested retail price of $1.49.

Boxes of frosted KrustyO’s, one of the many products on the show hawked by self-promoting Krusty the Clown, boasts a bright-red cereal box showing Krusty enjoying a bowlful of not-so-appetizing crunchy bits, unlike the real, edible cereal actually inside the collectible box.

Kwik-E-Mart’s Buzz Cola, available at all 7-Eleven stores while supplies last, is packaged in a red and yellow can and featured on store shelves. Because of the movie’s anticipated PG-13 rating, 7-Eleven is not offering Homer’s beverage of choice, Duff Beer. All told, the convenience store chain will carry more than 25 items that are either recreations of products from the actual show or collectibles, including a dancing Homer doll, talking key chains, T-shirts and hats.

Radioactive Man, Bart Simpson’s favorite superhero, is featured in a 32-page comic book produced by Bongo Entertainment Group only for 7-Eleven. Numbered 711, the plastic-wrapped comic book has a suggested retail price of $3.99.

7-Eleven has more fun in store – and out – for customers and Simpsons fans. One lucky person will have the chance to have his or her likeness animated for an upcoming episode of the TV show. This grand prize is part of 7-Eleven's “Get Animated” promotion with a chance to win one of more than 711 prizes that will be awarded through July 31.

“What Simpsons fan wouldn’t want to appear on the show?” Bargerhuff asked. “While hundreds of famous celebrities have guest-starred in the program through its 18-year history, this is the first time a fan will get the opportunity to hang out -- in a cartoon sense -- with Homer, Bart and the rest of the gang in Springfield.”

To play, customers will receive coded game pieces with the purchase of select 7-Eleven fresh, cool sandwiches, grill items and Squishee-named Slurpee drinks, which can be entered at www.7-11Simpsons.com to instantly win Simpsons merchandise, such as Simpsons products, Kwik-E-Mart t-shirts and uniforms and complete DVD sets of The Simpsons TV show, seasons 1 through 10. Contest entrants who collect and enter 10 codes will be eligible to receive a limited-edition THE SIMPSONS MOVIE poster.

Bringing the Kwik-E-Marts and Simpson products to life were ideas born from the collaboration of the creative folks at Fox, 7-Eleven and its advertising/marketing agency, FreshWorks, an Omnicom company. The idea had been germinating for over a year, and client and agency alike were inspired by the inherent fun in this tongue-in-cheek brand experience.

“We believe Simpsons fans will be as excited as we are about bringing The Simpsons and its products to life through the doors of 7-Eleven stores,” said Sandi Means, FreshWorks COO. “The pent-up interest and guessing about Kwik-E-Marts locations have been fodder for much Internet chatter, and now we can let the secret out about where to find their beloved convenience store. The coolest part is the chance to get animated into the show, and we thank Fox for this huge opportunity.”

Said Lisa Licht, Twentieth Century Fox’s executive vice president of global marketing partnerships, “The promotional strategy for THE SIMPSONS MOVIE was to partner with companies that would execute programs that have never been done before; and 7-Eleven has done just that by converting 12 of its stores to Kwik-E-Marts and outfitting the rest with Simpsons characters and products. We’ve never known a company that has so fully embraced a promotion.”

For more information about 7-Eleven Kwik-E-Marts, the Get Animated contest or exclusive Simpsons products, visit www.7-Eleven.com, www.7-11Simpsons.com or www.seeyellow.com.