From Paul Newman eating 50 eggs in the film Cool Hand Luke, to Mel Gibson eating dog biscuits in Lethal Weapon 3, movies and food have been closely linked.
So it comes as no surprise that in order to promote the new Guy Ritchie-helmed version of Sherlock Holmes, Warner Brothers have teamed up with that stalwart of American convenience food, 7-Eleven. Because when you think of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s famous detective solving crimes in Victorian London, you also think of microwaving a burrito and swigging weak, lukewarm coffee.
Since mid-November the chain has been running the Holmes promotion, the main part of which involves you using a clue printed on your coffee cup to go online and unlock another clue on a special 7-Eleven/Holmes microsite, which then takes you to another Holmes teaser site, which then presents you with another mystery. If you solve that you apparently then get more clues leading up to the movie’s opening scene, which OH MY GOD THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE MOST CONVOLUTED LOAD OF SHIT.
7-Eleven’s vice president Rita Bargerhuff proudly states that “7-Eleven customers will get a peek at the Holmes and Watson characters on in-store signage with clever phrases promoting value-oriented offerings, like quality fresh food and coffee.”
The ‘clever phrases’ Bargerguff?is talking about include such gems as ‘Solve Your Hunger!’ ‘It's No Mystery!’ ‘Get a Clue!’ ‘Investigate Our Coffee!’ and presumably ‘Elementary, My Dear Breakfast Sausage Quesadilla!’
Of course movie tie-ins are nothing new, although the notion of Sherlock Holmes ditching the cocaine and violin in favour of an Oscar Mayer hot dog and a cup of Mountain Dew just might make it the best promotion the world has ever seen. It’s certainly beats their tie-in for the Wolverine movie – the ‘X-Treme Energy Cappuccino’ into a cocked hat. Albeit a jittery, short-tempered hat.
But it’s Burger King who are the undisputed big bastards of snack-related movie cash ins. This year alone they’ve offered collectible drinks glasses to promote the J.J. Abrams Star Trek film, and a frozen citrus icepick to drive into your skull for G.I Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra. They also ran a Transformers:?Revenge of the Fallen promotion, by offering the most awesomely named hot-meat sandwich ever – the?New BK BBQ DOUBLE STACKTICON.
In a carefully worded-bit of promotional copy, they stretched both the concept of a burger and how this is connected to transforming robots from another planet: “the Transformers-inspired burger allows guests to stack multiple burger patties, bacon, sauce and cheese similar in theme to the ?combining? of Transformers characters in the upcoming film.”
Much like a normal burger, then. But Constructicon references aside, as long as the poster bellows THIS SUMMER YOUR HUNGER WILL HAVE FALLEN, I don’t really care.
So what can we look forward to next? Later this month Peter Jackson‘s version of The Lovely Bones will hit cinemas and naturally the theme of child murder will prove to be a big draw for fast-food tie-ins. Perhaps a burger that promises YOUR TASTE BUDS, LIKE SUSIE SALMON, WILL BE IN HEAVEN. And if we can all hang on to July of next year, we’ll get to see the Nic Cage remake of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – which will doubtlessly have some great food connected to it. I’m looking forward to some wizards-hat-shaped fried chicken – PREPARE FOR YOUR MOUTH TO BE ENCHANTED! No need to thank me, fast food marketing departments.
Who wrote this? Simon Swatman from Mediapill. What a delightful chap.
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magnetite says
I loathe being encouraged to celebrate the release of a film I don’t care about by eating a product that will shorten my life so much that I’ll be dead before the unwelcome sequel comes out.
I like to celebrate other things, like having enough loose change to go to a butty van and buy something that a rat shat on overnight. Just as unhealthy, but at least I won’t have to spend twenty minutes trying to work out what the included toy is.