7-Eleven Is the Latest Company to Benefit from a Romney Gaffe
We love how 7-Eleven's spokesperson responded to the latest non-scandal involving Mitt Romney saying wealthy-sounding things so much, we might run out and buy some cookies after this. (We're also hungry.) To recap: Mitt Romney sat with some voters at a picnic Tuesday afternoon in Pennsylvania, and said, per The Hill, “I’m not sure about these cookies... Did you make those cookies? You didn’t, did you? No. No. They came from the local 7-Eleven bakery or wherever."
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While the cookies were actually from a local bakery, Romney's presumed preference for non-mass produced cookies prompted some tongue-in-cheek populist fury from the likes of New York magazine's Daily Intel blogger Dan Amira and Vanity Fair's Juli Weiner. Enterprising reporter that he is, Amira called up 7-Eleven to get their comment and it's a study in willfully forced positive spin:
"Mitt Romney is right," glass-half-full 7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris told us just now. "There are bakeries dedicated just to delivering and making fresh baked goods every day, 365 days a year, for 7-Eleven stores. So we were very amused, because he got it right." Chabris added that, to show Romney what he's missing, 7-Eleven is even going to "send some [cookies] to his campaign headquarters in Boston so he can try them out."
Romney might not be doing so well with the "common touch," (though really his preference for the home-baked goods would be kind of endearing if he weren't insulting some bakery) but he certainly does rack up some corporate goodwill with these "gaffes." Cadillac, 7-Eleven, Etch-A-Sketch... It's a long list of products that have gotten attention and press from Romney-related media coverage.
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Much as we liked Chabris's statement, it's nothing compared to the art of punnery that came from Etch-A-Sketch's press office in the wake of the Romney campaign aid's now infamous allusion:
Happy to see Etch A Sketch, an American classic toy, is DRAWING attention with political candidates as a cultural icon and important piece of our society,” Nicole Gresh, spokeswoman for Etch A Sketch’s manufacturer Ohio Art, in an email to ABC News. ”A profound toy, highly recognized and loved by all, is now SHAKING up the national debate. Nothing is as quintessentially American as Etch A Sketch and a good old fashion political debate.”
Much like the toy, this statement's a classic.
