I've been reflecting on this.
Y'know, when 7-11 first started popping up in Toronto c1980, I could "get" the appeal of Slurpees (and I "knew of them" going back to my first trip to Florida in 1972: TV commercials et al). Who can resist the intense psychedelic buzz of a frosty drink? But Big Gulps, I could *not* "get"--like, what were they? Just regular soft drinks with ice in a large plastic cup. Compared to the intensity of a Slurpee, the concept of a Big Gulp just seemed...inert. What's the point?
Maybe it's a point-of-origin thing; Slurpees date back to 1967, Big Gulps to 1976. Kind of like going from Psych into Sloth--1976 marking an approximate dawn for the Listless White Trash era. Which brings us back to RoFo: Big Gulps as mother's milk for peabrained morons. Slurpees never lost their edge; Big Gulps never had an edge to begin with. (Myself, if I wanted extra-large sugary drinks, a family-sized bottle of cola in the fridge would do. Big Gulps just felt like a waste, and Super Big Gulps were just too big altogether--at least bottled colas had tops that could be snapped back on, or if not that, everybody had one of those metal bottle-stoppers back in the pre-screw-on era. Whereas if you had a Super Big Gulp and couldn't take it all in one sitting, you were skunked.)