The Staples “Easy Button” campaign has existed for several years, and now there’s a new series of ads about people trying to use the button in other places. For instance, this lady wants to use it at a gas station…
If I could walk into a Staples, see some college-ruled paper for $2.99, slap the Easy Button, and then buy it for $1.50, then this commercial would be spot-on. But unless I’ve missed something, that’s not how Staples works. Just like at the gas station, their prices are fixed, no matter how many Easy Buttons I’m rocking.
That’s why this ad campaign has always confused me. In TV land, the Easy Button has real power. It can refill your ink cartridge, or if you’re British, it can rescue you from a mountain of paperwork.
But why promote such an obvious a joke? Isn’t that kind of lame? Isn’t it an obvious attempt to force a catchphrase down our throats instead of letting it emerge organically?
Maybe. But maybe not. Apparently, people are buying Easy Buttons and using them as motivational tools in their offices and classrooms. I always thought the real-life button was a waste of money, but it might be a shrewd marketing tool that gets people to associate Staples with positive solutions for business and education.
But that aspect is not the focus of the ads. They’re still pushing the idea that the Easy Button works at Staples itself. Unless there are commercials I haven’t seen, this whole “buttons in the classroom” angle is like a grassroots movement.
And it’s kind of brilliant to let it stay underground. That lets consumers feel empowered to create a trend themselves. People can use Easy Buttons because their friends told them to, not because a commercial did.
Does anyone have any Easy Button experiences to share? What are your thoughts on this $5 piece of plastic?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Collin H // Aug 13, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I tend to visit Staples quite a bit for work, and not once has it ever been “Easy.”
Nothing is kept where you think it should be. For example, plain old white notepads – not in the copy paper section, not in the notebook section, not in the stationary section, not next to Post-its. So, where are they? Why, next to the paperclips of course!
Now that I’ve learned where the blasted pads are kept, you’d think I’d be able to find them “Easy” next time, right? Wrong. Staples like to execute storewide layout changes about every other day.
Not content to merely change products positions within the aisle, Staples goes the extra mile and has everything in the store change sides like some retail version of musical chairs. Sometimes I can hear the walls shifting around behind me as I shop there. I suspect that somewhere in the center of the store David Bowie is singing to muppets.
Once I’ve retrieved the golden fleece and typewriter ribbon from aisle 3 I begin the escape, which typically involves one extremely slow cashier and a line of people holding objects without barcodes.
Two hours later I’m back at the funeral home discovering I bought the wrong thing.
So, considering all the hell Staples gives me, I can’t say the Easy Button gives me the warm fuzzies, but I would cut it some slack if they released a commercial featuring the Easy Button in a “yo mama” joke contest.
2 KarenG // Aug 14, 2008 at 2:34 pm
My husband bought an East Button and proceeded to annoy the crap out of his coworkers with it. Then he took it home when he found a hack for it that allows you to record your own message instead of using the standard “that was easy.” Hilarity (and lots and lots profanity) ensued!
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