Friday, February 02, 2007

Very Nice™

I am seriously enjoying this spot for Office Max. Saw it during one of the playoff games two weeks ago and DDB Chicago (and others) finally got it up online. Titled "Boyfriend," the thing seems a bit K-fed inspired. I don't care if it sells copying and binding services, it's genius, right down to the stereotypical 70's porn music at the close. Cleveland even brought his iced out pimp goblet to dinner.

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share

Sent into orbit at 12:37 PM

5 Comments:

  • it's interesting that office max first introduced a mailroom attendant character, and opted to portray him with a black person (the stereotypical black job role) — yet when office max introduces a pimp, a white man is cast.

    a sign of progress? or did ddb realize a black man in the pimp role would potentially offend?

    By Blogger HighJive, at February 2, 2007 at 4:18 PM  

  • Good point, HJ. I thought of that as well. But you can imagine the outcry had they used a black man in the role of pimp. Plus, whiteboy as pimp is funny by itself.

    I never thought of the mailroom character as a full time mailroom guy. To me he was like a college kid working his way through school. The crazy hair was the giveaway.

    By Blogger RFB, at February 2, 2007 at 5:18 PM  

  • And on another note, HJ. There's another version of this on YouTube submitted by DDB is :41) that has an alternate ending in which we see Cleveland at Office Max being cheerfully helped by a black man, and the mailroom character is seen in the background on an in store disply ad. (Pause it at :37)

    By Blogger RFB, at February 2, 2007 at 5:27 PM  

  • the ddb creatives behind the work once said (i believe it was in an adweek story) that the office max mailroom character was inspired by agency mailroom employees.

    and the crazy hair was a direct rip-off of a character from a wayans brothers movie. can't remember which movie --- one of the scary movie flicks?

    By Blogger HighJive, at February 2, 2007 at 5:29 PM  

  • But do white pimps dress like that?

    That's the real determining factor.

    By Blogger Alan Wolk, at February 8, 2007 at 9:40 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home