Around ten days ago, a news story broke out about a baby born on 7-Eleven Day at 7:11 PM, weighing exactly 7 pounds and 11 ounces. What are the odds?!
Featured Image VIA
As the story went viral, with the media dubbing newborn J’aime Brown the 7-Eleven Baby, 7 Eleven’s Marketing team’s eyes lit up as they realised the opportunity – and decided to grant the baby a $7,111 scholarship to college.
I mean, come on. Surely when you’re a billion-dollar corporation, you can afford to give away a little more than a $7,000 scholarship.
It’s a typical case of brands latching on to something viral to make themselves look more positive. Some may argue than 7 Eleven didn’t have to donate anything, but it really feels like if they wanted to use this story to make the brand look more positive, they could have done so much more.
Why not a full ride to college? It’s a drop in the bucket for them, and they can show off some more when (if?) J’aime Brown graduates by dubbing them the “7 Eleven Graduate”.
The mother seemed quite chuffed, though. She said:
It’s hard for anybody to even get a trust fund for their children. To get a blessing like that, it just helps a lot.
It seems like 7-Eleven has been quite lucky with their branding recently, as the supermarket was also the setting for the viral video of the short man going nuts after workers asked how tall he is. That one truly never gets old.