Back around the start of the millennium, American culture used to be obsessed with the word “that.” Don’t believe me? Just know that over a decade before Taylor Swift thought to trademark the phrase “this sick beat,” there was Paris Hilton and “that’s hot!” If you think that’s a bad joke, it’s because it was. The belief that words often associated with the temperature of your latté would be restricted to this hotel mogul’s daughter was farcical. Still, it was a thing that happened, and Hilton’s status as “that” girl was nowhere near as endearing as Marlo Thomas.
Which isn’t to say that the “that” revolution didn’t produce one masterpiece. The piece de resistance that has outlived its parent company’s popularity in store locations. If you were anyone around the mid-2000s, there is a chance that you know what office supply store Staples did to put their permanent stamp on the zeitgeist. I was a teenager in middle school at the time, but even I was aware of this adult sensation that relied on such a juvenile fascination with red buttons.
Come on, we all love pressing buttons. There is something thrilling about seeing what actions this bulbous circle is connected to. As we smile, we think about the limitless possibilities that could happen. Maybe balloons would fall from the ceiling. Maybe it will make something explode. Whatever it is, we have the power to witness change with nothing more than a touch. As our finger reaches closer, we’re in that last moment of uncertainty, starting to touch the plastic shell. As it falls in, the moment of truth is milliseconds away from responding. Then, as the *click* can be heard, it says…
“That was easy.”
Maybe science can explain it better than I can, but the basic action of pressing a button and getting an immediate response is addictive. No matter how many times we press that red bulb, that same voice will speak out and say “that was easy.”
We wonder just why this needed to be a thing. Why do we need anything to tell us “that was easy,” because honestly, this is one of the most useless buttons in the whole world. Why would Staples corner the market for $5 a pop on something that has less appeal than making a necklace out of paper clips? There’s no effort in having that thing sit on your desk. Your work will not get done any better because of this novelty gift.
And yet, I want to keep pressing it. I want to hear it say “that was easy” because, as the action would suggest, it’s so easy. As Mark Twain would say: “Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes and That Staples Button that Goes ‘that was easy,’” At least, that’s how I think it goes. Somehow that button will outlive us all, being there after the cockroaches have taken over the world following a nuclear blast. When the aliens land, they will find it in the rubble and pick up. Even they will know the value of this button, knowing it was the epitomé of human innovation, and nobody exactly knows why.
Things weren’t always “that easy.” While it’s hard to believe now, there was a time when Staples went by a just as assertive but less fulfilling phrase: “Yeah, we’ve got that.” Oh sure, it makes sense in connection to what the store has. The office supply store is one of the greatest places in the world if you want to make an art project or finish your work reports. They even sell desk chairs, which are unofficial hangout grounds for kids too bored to look at 20 different kinds of erasable pens that all smeared anyways. They had everything, and there’s no shame in bragging about it.
But honestly, the cult of Staples needed their own gimmick to launch them into a zeitgeist founded on mascots. Wendy’s had that “where’s the beef?” lady, Taco Bell had the talking Chihuahua, Pep Boys had three guys with abscesses that made their heads really really big. But what about the place that had it all? How could they lie to the public when they had no real mascot or signature that can sit in a picture and say “buy our three-ringed binders! It’s bliss.”
Things began to change in 2003 when suddenly it was decided that they were discontinuing their slogan. Their image needed a shake-up, and that involved coming up with a new slogan. You’d think that they were working on a rocket for NASA with the amount of effort to come up with the phrase, but once it landed, they began work on making it applicable to their product.
The commercials all shared a similar theme. Over the course of 30 seconds to one minute, a problem would be introduced that seems impossible to solve. When someone comes forward with an answer that seems way too easy, they solve the problem using the ingenuity of products you can buy at Staples. Then they would proudly declare “That was easy!” Among the most noteworthy examples of these was a commercial where Alice Cooper is seen at a back to school sale discussing the lyrics to “School’s Out” and how school wasn’t out forever but only for the summer.
However, the one advertisement that changed everything for them came in 2005 when there was a commercial involving the familiar red button splashing the word “EASY” over the top of it. There was a joke about how using one red button to find another would cause a rip in the space-time continuum. After the button is pressed, the other is found and says in that familiar monotone voice “that was easy.”
It was all a gag and one that was literally torn from space. It was like the creative executives at Staples looked into the sky one night and found a meteor breaking through atmosphere and landing in their backyard. Inside would be the oozing, glowing button that would make them millions. After letting it cool, they would bring it into the house and begin studying it. They would cheer with exuberance as they bring it into the office, realizing that they had found the most useful compound since linoleum.
It was their worst kept secret. Following the commercial, they were bombarded with e-mails from people who didn’t know it was fake. They were eager to buy those Easy Buttons. Due to the high demand, they eventually were shipped to stores in the United States, Canada, and Germany starting in the fall of 2005. They were the adult Tickle Me Elmo, serving as this brief respite of joy in the cruel world of cubicles and Dilbert comics. People would gather around, eager to press the button. When the boss stopped by to see it, you would discover something that hadn’t been proven in the seven years that he’d been there: he indeed did have a soul.
The world was unified by the Easy Button. Everyone young and old could share in the joy of this mundane act. I remember being in middle school and walking up to the teacher. There on her desk would be this red button. Most of us were eager to press it, though she’d probably be annoyed if we all did it one after another for a straight 15 minutes. Still, it was this tempestuous being living on her desk, and we tried to find ways to get away with pressing that button. It was like throwing a rock through a window. It was only worth it if you could get away with it.
By the end of 2006, the Easy Button had sold 1.5 million after being sold at low impulse prices. If you didn’t have one, what was stopping you? All the cool kids had one, and not just in your local neighborhood. The button was translated into multiple languages including French (“simple”), Spanish (“fácil”), and German (“Einfach easy”).
The tech-savvy company knew how to leave their imprint. Despite there being a notorious decline in in-person stores, they remain the second most popular online retailer behind Amazon. Of course, it helps that they launched their website in 1998, putting them ahead of the competition by a significant margin. Given that a lot of the money made from the Easy Buttons went to charity, there was little to hold them back from immortality.
The good news is that those who want to buy Easy Buttons can still purchase them, but reports will suggest that it’s roughly $9 now. Whereas it seemed like a cute gimmick at half that price, it’s now too pricey to enjoy for a lark. I’m sure a child not brought up on economics will look at it and still get a laugh, but for everyone else, you look at the button and frown at the teacher.
You ask “ma’am, what IS your salary that you can afford this $9 lark? Wouldn’t they better be invested in supplies?” When she responds, you begin to realize that things had gotten out of hand. Not only had Staples gone mad with power, but the school system has underpaid her. She deserves to have a $9 lark, but not when it’s that percentage of her salary. Then again you’re 14 and have no grasp on percentages because you flunked the section on division. The teacher deserves whatever comeuppance she gets.
And thus you can understand why the Easy Button stopped seeming so conventional and commonplace. Maybe it was just a fad and that was inevitable. Of course, the economic model changed and things change with time. Still, the fact that we can’t buy Easy Buttons for dirt cheap anymore is a bummer. Then again, it’s becoming tougher to find Staples in-person stores to make this impulse buy more plausible. It’s likely why they changed their slogan to “Make More Happen,” which is the underwhelming sequel to “Yeah we’ve got that,” that we were kind of expecting.
I understand that this whole thing was an illogical fad, but it’s also one of the greatest pieces of marketing ever conceived. For a few years, everyone was obsessed with this button that had the Staples logo on the side. People wanted to have one for the lark, and you couldn’t without having a Staples logo on your desk. You can’t buy that type of advertising, especially when it’s connecting with people across generations and economic backgrounds.
While we’re over a decade removed from this hot commodity, it is something that still feels novelty and of its culture. We think of it more in line with “where’s the beef?” It’s something that some of us weren’t around for, and yet it permeates our subconscious in strange ways. Maybe by the next generation when we give up Staples as a brick and mortar it will stop holding any significance, but for now, it’s a testament to how having this self-serving gratification can make our day easier.
Need someone to recognize your efforts? It’s now in button form. While there’s the wish that it could say dozens of more things, it said the one that we needed most. On days when hours of hard work have worn us out, we need that person saying “That was easy,” to remind us either sincerely or sarcastically that we’re working towards a bigger goal. In the process, it captures the Staples ethos, which is to use office supplies for a more productive purpose. No matter how many people imitated it, the joke was the same. We were all pressing the button for that fix, and even in digital form it remains amusing.
In the end, that’s what makes their that more timeless than Paris Hilton’s that. It’s not using common vernacular to seem cool (pardon the pun). It’s finding ways to make everyday phrases accessible to others, adding a deeper context to situations that already exist. Staples knew it better than anyone else, and they packaged it with a stupidly straightforward idea that sold millions. We can call it dumb or even useless, but the truth is that it used minimalism to define a company that’s got everything. Now THAT was easy.
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