After months of speculation, the convenience chain has revealed details of its “most massive and complex” monthlong promotion for the July 27 release of “The Simpsons Movie.” Starting today, the marketer will remodel overnight a dozen stores in the U.S. and Canada into the Kwik-E-Marts of the cartoon family’s fictional Springfield, USA hometown.

The CMO of 7-Eleven seems to be going along with the joke as he said:

“When you’re the industry leader, others may want to stereotype or poke fun at you, we get the joke and want to have a little fun with our customers and fans of ‘The Simpsons.’”

Set in Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Burbank, Calif.; Los Angeles; Las Vegas; New York; Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; Seattle; Mountain View, Calif.; Bladensburg, Md.; and Coquitlam, B.C., Canada (on July 3), the stores will remain in drag through the July 27 movie premiere. The stores will switch back to 7-Elevens at the end of the month.

The whole article can be read at AdAge.

After Shakira and Panasonic had recently agreed to extend their partnership for one more year until March 2008, the new advertisements were released in Latin America. Shakira will continue promoting Panasonic audio visual products, including Lumix digital cameras, the Viera plasma television, print, and point-of-sale poster advertisements.  The commercials were filmed in the Bahamas.

A flash version of the advertisement can be seen at the Latin American Panasonic website.  The commercial for the Panasonic Lumix digital camera can be seen by clicking here, and the Panasonic Viera plasma television commercial can be seen by clicking here. 

The commercials are elegant, beautifully done, and should be a hit.

The advertising face of Nikon digital cameras is Kate Moss:

And the face of Canon digital cameras is Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova:

The GEICO cavemen became a hit almost overnight.  The whole series of 30 second GEICO commercials are based on Cavemen who live in modern society getting agitated with homosapiens who treat them as unintelligent and idiotic.  Along comes ABC, they notice this entertaining concept and view it as a money making machine.  ABC plans to pay for the pilot and the making of the show called Cavemen which will supposedly air on ABC’s fall schedule.

Whether or not this show will be a hit remains to be seen.  But how long can this concept stay funny? How long can a Neanderthal Cavemen who gets offended by prejudice against its species, stay funny? Why does GEICO, who gave permission and will get a royalty check for ABC’s use of their characters, have to ruin such a good advertising idea with oversaturation?  Who knows?

Here is what GEICO’s VP of Marketing Ted Ward had to say about the idea:

 “We are excited to have an opportunity to do brand extension.”

Sure this sitcom will serve as a brand reminder.  But at what cost?

Below is a video clip of the show:

Also created by GEICO is an entertaining website dedicated to the GEICO Cavemen, in this site a user can interact with the GEICO cavemen and their crib.  You the user are an early arrival to a party, but you can walk around their bedroom, bathroom, read their books, watch their television, listen to their voicemail, (one of the messages is from girl who seems like a caveman stalker!), and finally read their blog.  Check it out, can be entertaining for a few minutes.

http://www.cavemanscrib.com/