The Simpsons their advertising. As a promotion for "The Simpsons Movie", twelve 7-Eleven stores were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts and sold "The Simpsons" related products. These included "Buzz Cola", "Krusty-O" cereal, pink doughnuts with sprinkles, and "Squishees". In 2008 consumers around the world spent $750 million on merchandise related to "The Simpsons", with half of the amount originating from the United States. By 2009, 20th Century Fox had greatly increased merchandising efforts. On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, to commemorate the show's twentieth anniversary. "The Simpsons"
The Simpsons the first successful animated program in American prime time since "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" in the 1970s. During most of the 1980s, US pundits considered animated shows as appropriate only for children, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. "The Simpsons" changed this perception, initially leading to a short period where networks attempted to recreate prime-time cartoon success with shows like "Capitol Critters", "Fish Police", and "Family Dog", which were expensive and unsuccessful. "The Simpsons" use of Korean animation studios for tweening, coloring, and filming made the episodes cheaper. The