July 2nd, 2007 | Al Lagura |

So much marketing or should I say HYPE for this movie it’s nuts. First it was the Simpson Vans and now this! Dope Dope and Dope! I grew up watching the Simpsons since mid 90’s and I don’t know any friends that did not watch the Simpsons growing up.

Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of “The Simpsons” fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art.

Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO’s cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees.

It’s all part of a campaign to hype the July 27 opening of “The Simpsons Movie,” the big-screen debut for the long-running television cartoon, which loves to lampoon 7-Eleven as a store that sells all kinds of unhealthy snacks and is run by a man with a thick Indian accent.

Read more about it here and I’ll be out of the office for the rest of the day and will be heading to the Mountain View store. Who’s with me?