OfficeMax (stock symbol: OMX), often erroneously spelled "Office Max", is an office supplies retailer founded in 1987 and headquartered in Itasca, IL. It is the third-largest office supplies retailer in the USA, behind Staples and Office Depot. The company was acquired by Boise Cascade in 2003, and has undergone numerous internal changes since then, including rebranding it's copy and print centers from CopyMax to OfficeMax Print & Document Services. This change was primarily to take advantage of the name recognition that OfficeMax enjoys. The furniture section of the retail stores is often marketed separately as FurnitureMax. OfficeMax has over 900 locations in the USA, over 40 locations in Mexico and Puerto Rico, and an on-line retailer in Canada (officemax.ca) and the USA (officemax.com).

Recent performance woes, including poor sales, are related to an accounting scandal and the departure of two top-level officials in early 2005.

The chain's in-store copy and print centers and furniture departments are often marketed separately as "OfficeMax Print & Document Services" (PDS) and "FurnitureMax".

Advertising

For most of the chain's history, their advertising mascot was a faceless animated stick figure called "StickMax". In 2004, they would unveil a colorful new character unlike anything ever seen in the usually staid world of office supplies retail advertisement.

For the back-to-school season - traditionally, the biggest sales promotion of the year for office supplies retailers - the "Rubberband Man" made his debut. Based on and featuring the 1975 hit by The Spinners, OfficeMax's Rubberband Man is a slender African American with a large misshapen Afro and flamboyantly colored clothing. The character is played by dancer/actor Eddie Steeples (now playing Darnell on My Name is Earl), who was voted one of People Magazine's Sexiest Men of 2004. He dances as he hands out school supplies to kids on summer vacation. Some have suggested that the character is based on Andre 3000 of the hip hop duo Outkast.

For the Christmas season, the Rubberband Man was back handing out Christmas presents, this time as a stop motion animated puppet in the style of the classic Rankin-Bass television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The Emmy-nominated ad campaign was created by the advertising firm DDB Chicago and has earned praise from African-American civic leaders for its portrayal of a black spokesman who is not a professional athlete or entertainer, however, several OfficeMax employees were offended by the character, claiming that the character was yet another "singing and dancing Negro" meant to entertain OfficeMax's majority White customers.

External links

• Official site
• OfficeMax's Rubberband Man