Saturday, July 28, 2007
Mmmm... That's a Good Slurpee
Today for the first time in approximately 6 years, I went to 7-Eleven and got a Slurpee. Only I didn't get a Slurpee. I got a Squishee.
See, the Simpsons Movie came out this week, and it appears one of the licensing deals they've done is with 7-Eleven. This makes intuitive sense, since so much of Simpsons culture focuses on the convenience store. But perhaps they've taken it a little too far.
The Kwik-E-Mart in Springfield is obviously a caricature or parody of 7-Elevens and other convenience stores. Apu is the stereotypically Indian store owner who routinely gets robbed, and so on and so on. The parody even includes a parody of the Slurpee: the Squishee. Bart and his friends always load up on Squishees whenever they go to the Kwik-E-Mart.
But the licensing deal provides for 7-Eleven to actually call is real-life Slurpees "Squishees." That is to say, the thing being parodied is now calling itself by the name of the parody in order to drum up business. Heck, not only did the Slurpee cup I bought today have "Squishee" emblazoned on it more prominently than "Slurpee," it also had the Kwik-E-Mart logo larger than the 7-Eleven logo. It was just a little weird.
It's like Madonna going on a "Like a Surgeon" tour.
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