In the future there will be only one brand: Hello Homer

The brilliant blog Hello Kitty Hell (“One Man’s Life With Cute Overload”) has found our new marketing overlord:

Courtesy of artist Joseph Senior

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This summer’s biggest waste of marketing dollars? Harry Potter & The Simpson’s Movie

There was no point in spending a dime on advertising for either one. Marketing them was like doing PR for YouTube: Sit there and watch the fish jump in your boat. That said, co-branding with these two things was a GREAT idea. I was down in Orlando last week and went to one of the 7-Eleven’s that were rethemed as a Kwik E Mart and I loved it. All they did was throw up some signs and boom! A hit was born. (I’ll post my pics at some point in the future. Best signage was the one of Hans Moleman frozen in the ice machine). Place was mobbed.

I haven’t seen any co-branding with HP & The Deathly Hallows, has anyone else?

Quick reviews (without spoilers):

Harry Potter & The Great Big Bags of Cash: The final HP was too long by about a third but better than I expected it to be. The actual writing, i.e. sentence structure and syntax, was much better than in the last two. In 5 &6 I approached each sentence concerned that I wouldn’t be able to find my way out once I started in. There were several things that seemed invented just for book seven — like a certain species’ use of a different type of magic — that felt like they were there only because the author had painted herself into a corner. Apparently Ms. Rowling feels that having characters wander around pointlessly builds tension or something.

Simpson’s Movie: It’s about a B to B+ episode. At 1.5 hrs long, it doesn’t suffer from the bloat and padding that seems to go along with most movies of TV shows. Also they didn’t let it get over run by guest stars. Tom Hanks is great and I was quite pleased to see Green Day go down with the ship. My only real complaint is that we were promised screen time for ALL the secondary characters and I do believe they missed one: God. The bearded one was conspicuously absent. Next time guys. Also, I want more musical numbers.

Kennedy fails Bay State as Springfield, Vermont, named official Springfield of the Simpsons

I may have to vote against Sen. Ted in the next election because of his failure on this issue which has been so important to all the members of the Collateral Damage household. Our own Diamond Joe Quimby put out some serious political weight behind this and lost. Not only did he appear in a video for the effort but

Kennedy urged everyone on the e-mail list of his leadership political action organization, the Committee for a Democratic Majority, to vote for Springfield, Mass., in a USA Today contest to determine which of the 14 American cities named Springfield should assume the status of real-world equivalent for the Simpson clan’s hometown.

But all was for naught: Springfield, Vt., was the winner of an online voting competition conducted by USA-Today, on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox, to host the premiere on July 21. The Vermont town, population 9,300, was the top vote-getter, followed in order by Springfield, Ill., Springfield, Ore., and Springfield, Mass.

Man, we lost to Oregon and I didn’t even know they had a Springfield. Maybe that explains why Ted’s still in office: He realized he couldn’t cut it as a private sector lobbyist.

Chowda Head.

You are a Simpson!

I now understand why there is an interweb. So we can all create our own Simpsons avatar. This is exactly how I look in real-life. Go here to make your own. This could be the greatest viral EVER.

When stealing Homer Simpson statues is outlawed, only outlaws will D’OH!

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Two college students believed to be over-exuberant fans of “The Simpsons” stole a life-sized figurine of Homer Simpson from a cinema, but police tracked them down and forced them to return it Thursday.

Mmmmm, felony…

For other Simpsons Movie related news go here.

Mmmmmm … marketing: 7-Eleven converting some stores to Kwik-E-Marts

As a tie-in with the upcoming Simpson’s movie, the convenience store chain will remodel 11 of its stores to resemble Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’s place of business. “Customers also will be able to buy products inspired by the nearly two-decades-old show, including KrustyO’s cereal, Buzz Cola and iced Squishees (the cup says Squishee, but the contents will be Slurpee). The chain also will use pictures of Simpsons characters to promote 7-Eleven’s line of fresh foods, such as placing the face of Homer and his classic “Mmmm . . . sandwich” quip on sandwich wrappers.” Gotta say, fresh food is NOT the first thing I think of when you say Kwik-E-Mart. More like year-old hot dogs and over-priced everything.

Oddly there’s no indication that any of the converted stores will be in anywhere named Springfield.

FYI: Here’s a link to the official list of the locations of Kwik-E-7-Elevens. And a Flickr group of photos can be seen here.

Don’t you hate it when they beat you at your own game?

The very funny Information Nation saw my piece on deep fried Coca-Cola and then went and did some … gasp … research. Click here to see what I hope is the definitive list of foods that have been deep fried (Haggis?!?! Dear God, won’t someone think of the children?). Although I don’t know how definitive the list can be without including Uncle Moe’s Family Feedbag which fried and then served a tray covered with food, utensils, a wine bottle and such. “This baby can flash-fry a buffalo in 40 seconds!”

Speaking of being beaten at my own game … kudos/curses to AdFreak for finding the story about Hillary and soon-to-be -former Sen. Santorum wearing corporate sponsorship suits a la NASCAR before I did. Grrrrr. And extra kudos to GOOD magazine for coming up with the idea in the first place.