• Associated Press via Yahoo, Tuesday, July 3, 2007 11:01 AM

7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen of its stores into "Kwik-E-Marts," the fictional convenience chain featured in the "The Simpsons" as part of a promotional push for a Simpsons movie due out later this month.

The stores and most of the thousands of other 7-Elevens in North America will also sell items that had existed only on the show, i.e. Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees. For 20th Century Fox Film, the program is a relatively cheap way to tout the movie as 7-Eleven is soaking up the cost.

And the company is hoping that making fun of itself will play well with customers. "We thought if you really want to do something different, the idea of actually changing stores into Kwik-E-Marts was over the top, but a natural," says Bobbi Merkel of 7-Eleven ad FreshWorks. "It shows they get the joke."

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