Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart? Bloggers do.
The tie-in promotion for the coming Simpsons movie that has transformed a dozen 7-Elevens across the United States and Canada into the iconic convenience store from the popular animated TV show has also captured the imagination of fans online.
Kwik-E-Mart photos are popping up on Flickr, videos are being posted on YouTube, and bloggers are finding it hard to contain their enthusiasm.
Simpsons Movie Kwik-E-Mart Mirror (simpsonskwikemart.blogspot.com) has dedicated itself to tracking ephemera from the various Kwik-E-Mart locations. The site is overflowing with pictures and videos from Simpsons fans sharing their real-world Kwik-E-Mart experiences and also provides the locations and addresses to the 7-Elevens partaking in the promotion.
Flickr user rdr07 (flickr.com/photos/rdr07/) posted a set of 60 photos from the Burbank, Calif., Kwik-E-Mart site and provided links to photo sets from other Kwik-E-Mart sites from around the country, including a set of images from a visit to the store in Bladensburg (flickr.com/photos/johnnymetro).
Typing in "Kwik-E-Mart" in the search box on YouTube brings up a growing list of enthusiastic amateur videos intent on partaking in the hype. Some have been set to song in music-video style.
Bloggers in general have been over the top in their excitement for the Simpsons promotion blitz, particularly over the opportunity to buy promo products that have become pop culture icons over the years, such as Buzz Cola and Krusty O's.
"I can die happy," wrote Kevin at jiggens.vox.com. "Because I can officially say I've shopped at a real Kwik-E-Mart!"
Not surprisingly, Kwik-E-Mart memorabilia was also quickly spreading across eBay and Craigs-List. A six-pack of Buzz Cola was going for about $10 at mid-week on the massive online auction site (it was selling for $2.89 a six-pack last week at the Kwik-E-Mart in Bladensburg). A package containing Buzz Cola, Krusty O's and a Radioactive Man comic was up to $37 with 11 bidders.
What effect the promotion has on the movie, which opens July 27, remains to be seen, but fan response could hardly have been more receptive. Some even attempted to piggyback on the momentum for a little promotion of their own.
A.K.M. Adam, an Episcopal minister and longtime blogger, gets points for the most original Simpsons post last week. Adam took the opportunity to use the Kwik-E-Mart transformations as an educational point on the way churches are run.
"Now, let's ask the embarrassing question," Adam wrote on his blog, akma.disseminary.org, "which is your church more like: the office funny guy repeating something that someone once thought was amusing, or the brilliantly subtle, detailed creation of a physical-world Kwik-E-Mart?
"Much of the time, my rants about attention to detail and communicating carefully and responsibly and deliberately, are drowned out by a culture of casualness, spontaneity, free-wheelin' yada yada yada," Adam elaborated. "Hey, spontaneity and relaxation and freedom are good things, I approve of them. But attention to detail -- by people who know what they're doing -- makes a difference, and viewers, visitors, congregants can tell (even if they can't articulate the difference it makes)."
Now that's a sermon even Reverend Lovejoy could appreciate.