Schilling Slurpees

Analysis:

This story gives viewers a brief synopsis of the history of the Slurpee. This is esentially a free commercial for Seven Eleven and their product, the Slurpee. It is quite likely that this is a video news release, produced by a public relations firm on behalf of the Seven Eleven corporation. Viewers should ask how running stories that are part of a corporate marketing campaign serve the public interest.

Story:

Newsreader – They’ve been selling them for 40 years. And today, Slurpees are as popular as ever. The semi-frozen soft drink that promises to make your brain freeze will turn 40 next week. The very first icy machine was introduced in Dallas in 1960; 7/11 started selling the drinks in 1965. But the company didn’t actually coin the name Slurpee for another couple of years. Now, more than a half million Slurpees are sold every day, and, get this, surprisingly, Winnipeg, Canada drinks more of them than anyplace else.

Time: 30 seconds