Okay, so this morning I was laying on the floor scrolling through my Instagram (as a way to procrastinate the dreaded project brief 3 assignment) when I came across the 7/11 Instagram page.  A sudden thought hit me.  7/11, particularly the store on the corner of Glenlyon Road and Nicholson Street has an uncanny resemblance to the ‘Kwik-E-Mart’ from Matt Groening’s “The Simpsons”.

Photograph sourced from: 

http://www.thebrickfan.com/lego-the-simpsons-kwik-e-mart-will-be-available-in-april-2015/

Photograph sourced from:

Google Maps

My first thought was to do a little research into who could have been the original creator of this small general store.  It seems that 7/11 was actually founded some time before “The Simpsons” was even thought about.  It was founded in 1927 as opposed to “The Simpsons” first episode which was released many decades later in 1989.

The resemblance of the two stores may be purely coincidental, however taking into account the political nature of the comedic television show, I am speculating that the “Kwik-E-Mart’ is an attack on America’s mass consumerism and really, a satirical representation of reality.

Once again media has allowed me to draw a connection between reality and fiction.  “The Simpsons” raises important issues about society in each episode, so watching it gives insight to the very interesting ways media can be beneficially used to convey a social message.