Media-and-fast food cross promotions, like the ubiquitous movie-themed Happy Meal toys at McDonald’s, are typically pedestrian, pointless, and rarely warrant much attention — notwithstanding my curmudgeonly paranoid perception that the pairings represent a sinister alliance between the megaconglomerates that control the crap we eat and the crap we watch. This new one, however, is an exception. If you’ve yet to be introduced, meet Domo-kun, a furry, four-cornered mascot of Japan’s NHK broadcasting company.
In a six week promo stretching into the middle of November, Domo will be gracing coffee cups, hot dog boxes and Slurpee Big Gulps at 7-Eleven.
photos: eat me daily
I plan to steal a sleeve of them coffee cups. They slay me. Also on tap, furry Domo straw buddies in what appear to be rocker, raver, rapper and Mexican wrestler varieties:
I’m freakin kvelling over here. In the nearly 5 years since they restarted the chain in Manhattan I’ve never entered a 7-Eleven store. Time to find the nearest one. You win this time, convenience chain. I am powerless against your hug-ably iconic marketing scheme. Or, as Slurpee marketing manager Evan Brody put it to Brand Week, I guess I’m just a sucker for “crazy Japanese shit.”
No Happy Medium 