7-Eleven always brings back the good memories. Free slurpees on 7/11, brain freezes, that awesome Simpsons in-store takeover a few years ago. And now Japanese character Domo is making a splash in stores nationwide! (Just walked by a 7-Eleven on the way to work – definitely going back to check it out some more.)
Domo is a brown blockhead with feet, also known as a lovable fart monster, created by Tsuneo Goda, and is the mascot for Japanese TV station NHK. Domo’s fall plans include covering 7-Eleven stores for six weeks starting October 1st with Domo Slurpee and coffee cups, fuzzy Domo toys that hang off Slurpee straws, hot dog containers, open-mouth Domo candy displays. You can also try their new Domo-inspired red apple flavor Fuji Frost or purchase Domo goodies like collectible action figures, abbreviated Manga comic book just for 7-Eleven, DVDs (supposedly a roundup of video clips, fan-created animations, commercials, Japanese spots), plush characters and clothing.
According to AdWeek, Evan Brody, marketing manager for Slurpee and Big Gulp Brands seems to also like the new takeover: “Domo lends itself well to the store and our proprietary products and our consumers who… love crazy Japanese shit.” If that’s the ultimate slice of the 7-Eleven customer profile, I think I can be cool with that.
A 3-webisode series will also be promoted on www.domonation.com and http://www.slurpee.com/Promotions/Domo/. These films were created by dwarf inc., the original creator of Domo’s stop-motion animation. Check out the first and second one here:
Domo’s First Slurpee
Domo’s Journey
Perhaps next on the list, some Murakami spring or Kid Robot summer action? LOVE.
Check www.slurpee.com on October 12th and 19th for the 2nd and 3rd episodes:
More pictures can be found on Eat Me Daily blog:
Lets step back from the article for a senocd and ask why it is that America intervenes in atrocities in central Europe, but not in Africa? Why is it that we welcome refugees from Cuba, but not from Haiti? As someone recently remarked, if Elian Gonzalez had been Haitian they would have shoved him back into the ocean!What does this have to do with the article, and why I consider it offensive? Because there is a way of writing about certain parts of the world that makes it seem as if the situation is a natural condition of that part of the world. They are as prone to dictatorships as they are to malaria. What point is there in the United States even stepping in to help such a backwards place?Perhaps you think I am overreacting? But I have had many conversations with people in which they insist that such-and-such a country is prone to tribalism and ethnic conflict so there is little we can do. Most recently someone said something along these lines to me about Afghanistan.The problem is that such a view is ahistorical. Anyone who has read Mamdani’s excellent book Citizen and Subject will know all that they need to know about how European colonial rule created tribes where none had previously existed. In communities that had complex systems of local rule, and intermarriage with people in neighboring communities, they would assign one man to be chief of a tribe and give him dictatorial power over the community. There was nothing natural about it. Similarly, in Afghanistan, there was little in the way of ethnic conflict in the years preceeding the Soviet invasion. However, with the Iranians funding one faction, the Pakistanis (with US $$$) another, and the Uzbeks yet another, ethnicity became much more important.There is a way of writing about such a horrific farce that helps us understand it better, that places it in a context so that it seems less strange and exotic and more human and understandable. Unfortunately, in order to write vividly reporters feel that they must instead do the opposite, and instead make things stranger and more exotic. Especially when the people being talked about are of a slightly darker hue.