Hands Off, Office Depot!

I am a fan of office supplies. I have worked in multiple office environments for many years, and always find that the supplies help to keep life interesting. The Post-It dispenser. The one pen that you love that is just the right ink weight. The desktop organizer that you cannot live without. I have even found myself leaving positions only to miss… my stapler.

Although I know I am coming off like an office supply geek, I am certain that many office workers such as me couldn’t help but agree that one does get attached to the items on their desk. And this doesn’t have to be a personal item. It is the cool thumbtack, the mechanical pencil, the thesaurus, and the paper clip container that makes your day go ‘round when you work in an office.

When talking ad campaigns for office products, I am struck first by the creative bent that Office Max took with their “Rubberband Man”. You remember. He walks around the office, a giant ball made of rubber bands - spinning as in a disco - attached to the cart full of supplies that he is pushing. As he walks, the song Rubberband Man by the Spinners plays. The character is portrayed by actor Eddie Steeples, now a regular cast member on NBC’s My Name is Earl. He has big hair and a magnanimous smile; an appealing advertising character if I ever saw one.









Then there is STAPLES. They currently have an ad campaign that sells the idea of an “Easy Button”. Press and all errant office systems are instantly organized with the help of STAPLES. One of the reasons why I like the Easy Button idea is because STAPLES chose to also market the button as a promotional item. One of their buttons sits on the desk of a woman that I work with; and in fact, the company that I work for uses STAPLES as its main office supply vendor. Their website is a very easy tool to use. Truth in advertising does help.














Now onto Office Depot: they are currently running an ad campaign that features a hand popping out of a box to help unorganized office workers. This hand is of course reminiscent of “Thing” from The Addams Family. My difficulty with the new mascot for Office Depot is the fact that it is just creepy. It was meant to be creepy on The Addams Family, and while the character actually fits into that ensemble cast so that viewers would get used to its disembodied status as just a hand, it simply does not belong in a commercial about the ease of ordering or using office supplies.

Let me paint a picture for you: an office worker is at her desk. She is writing with her favorite pen, which suddenly runs out of ink. What will she do?

A) Wait for the friendly, happy and dancing supply guy to come by with another pen – and she is totally happy to wait for him because he is so entertaining and pen friendly.

B) Press the button on her desk marked “EASY” so that a new pen will magically appear with little or no effort on her part.

C) Tap quietly on the box that has been placed on her desk that happens to contain a human hand that is both animated and disturbingly knowledgeable about office products, leaving the employee to wonder if she is having an acid flashback or just needs to check herself into the psych ward.

The thing that baffles me the most about this ad campaign is the not so shallow coating of desperation that kind of oozes off of the whole situation. Office Max had their time in the sun with the ol’ Rubberband Man. STAPLES followed up with a relatively simply concept that holds simple appeal. Obviously these two advertising successes forced the hand (pardon the pun) of Office Depot. They were cornered in a room full of advertising executives, wondering how they could make their own mark. Someone mentions Thing from The Addams Family, and suddenly the viewing public is subjected to this lazy and poorly conceived advertising train wreck.

Were you that desperate, Office Depot? Couldn’t you have gone with a talking ruler or some kind of other usually unanimated object that one would find in any office? How about a disembodied voice rather than a disembodied hand? I mean, I am down with so many other options other than the hand concept – didn’t anyone else speak up? Was it the one guy with the hand idea and that was it? I find that pretty hard to believe.

There are plenty of things about the medium of television that leave a great deal to be desired. The programming and the advertising both pander to the lowest denominator as it is. And I do believe that this commercial is just another example of what “they” assume “we” will like. No imagination was used when this so-called character was affiliated with Office Depot. Not only is the idea recycled from a television show, it isn’t used in the correct context.

And it’s creepy. Don’t forget the creepy part.