The Simpsons to appear in 7-Elevens, fly JetBlue
20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Gracie Films are gearing up for the July 27 release of "The Simpsons Movie" with a marketing campaign that includes partnerships with 7-Eleven and JetBlue Airways.
The campaign brings the characters of television show "The Simpsons" into the real world. Last weekend, 7-Eleven turned 12 of its stores into Kwik-E-Marts, where one of the show's characters, Apu, works. In addition, 6,400 7-Eleven stores in the United States will sell items, including KrustyO's cereal, Buzzcola and Slurpee-like Squishees, which until now existed only on the show.
JetBlue, the official airline of Springfield, the town in which "The Simpsons" is set, has featured Homer on its Web site shouting "Why you little!" and Krusty the Klown and Chief Wiggum recommending flights to Chicago and Boston.
Consumers can sign up to win free flights and prizes by entering their e-mail addresses on www.jetblue.com.
Fox's interactive Web site at www.simpsonsmovie.com lets visitors build Simpsons-like avatars and play with the characters in a Springfield virtual world. Fans can also watch movie trailers on the site.
In addition to the corporate partnerships, the campaign includes a contest to identify the elusive state of the Simpsons' home city of Springfield, USA. Fox invited 16 of the country's more than 30 Springfields to submit a three- to five-minute video to compete to be the official home of "The Simpsons."
Last month, competing Springfields across the US designed submission Web sites and encouraged their citizens to submit ideas. Viewers can vote online for their favorite Springfield video and the real-life Simpsons hometown will be determined.
The winning city will get to host the film's July 26 premiere.
