I didn't have a problem with any of the other companies being used. the Staples thing felt forced (do you remember Kevin showing off the features of the shredder?). I also don't remember seeing Hooters, Apple, Chrysler ads during the episode (I could be wrong). The Staples one felt forced and corporate driven/product placement-y whereas the other references didn't give me that impression.

There was also the promotion of TAR, though that gets into an interesting question. I'm sure that one probably wasn't paid for, but it certainly has the same effect as product placement. Should it be considered a different thing?

I like Andy because of the reactions you get from everyone else. Some added a picture of Jenna Fisher at the Golden Globes heres a better picture

I don't get the problem with the Staples thing. Would you rather them use a fake company? If not, then Staples, Office Depot, or OfficeMax are the obvious companies they would use. Or he could go to work for Kohl's or Autozone, since his experience is in selling paper and those would make a lot of sense.

Besides, if product placement helps pay for the cost of the show and keeps it on the air longer, more power to them.

BTW, TAR is not on NBC, so I don't see them going out of their way to promote that show.

Staples made sense, because paper is what Dwight knows. I think Staples or Officemax really needs to sort of be a presence in the show because these companies have rendered operations like Dunder Mifflin totally moot.

I also think Dwight working on the Staples floor reinforces the notion of characters like Jan and Michael and Dwight being total misfits who are weirdly good at what they do in at this loser company but don't fit in anywhere else.

As for the "product placements" regarding the restaurants, I expect that's really less imposed by the marketing than coming out of the writers' New York antipathy towards chain restaurants and the people who eat at them. I'm sure somebody has to get permission to depict the restaurants, and I'm sure someone calls Chili's and says "Yeah, Steve Carrell goes to Chili's and he really loves it," but the origin of that is someone in the writer's room who would never, ever eat there saying "Michael Scott is the sort of douchebag who loves to go to Chili's."

a show that's this popular shouldn't need to rely on product placement to remain on the air (but that's beside the point).


My point about the Staples thing goes mostly back to the shredder. Kevin gives a demo of it (albeit with a joke when he accidentially shreds his credit card) and then they advertise the very same shredder during the commercial break. I don't care about product placement or using brand names or whatever if it's for the story, but the Staples (again, the shredder usage is what I have more of a problem with) seemed too much. Is this clearer?

I'm 99% sure they showed Chili's ads during those episodes. And The Office debuted on iTunes the day after the iPod episode ended. This is not unprecedented.

As others have said, I'd rather they use a real company, and they didn't focus too much on Staples: The Company. It was about Dwight being Dwight in a new place that just happened to be Staples. They even treated it like it was a step down for him, so I'm not really sure what your problem is with it.

Great show but damn that Andy is annoying. Does anyone know or ever encounter someone like that in real life? I think if I had to work with someone like that, one of us would be dead in a few hours. I hope Andy goes

Great to see Oscar back, at least we was able to finally laugh at the gaycation

No Toby is always a plus

That Temp is becoming a bit of a bitch too. No fun and just as boring as Toby. Is he still with that Kelly girl still? I thought he hated bieng with her, havent they addressed that?

Jim is an idiot, hes leaving the steak cause his feelings are too strong for the spam... So foolish.

Oh well, Producers, my wish is to keep Karen around till shows end and have the first office death, kill off Andy. I dont care if he chokes on a paperclip, just do it

If they've done it with other companies and their products then I don't really care. I thought it was just Staples and the shredder. The use of Staples last night was fine and worked well.....I was just still think about the shredder and thought that the Staples CEO was dating an NBC exec. or something like that.


I HAVE NO PROBLEM

Andy is an office culture monster. He's read too many self-help books about how to advance in business and he is putting the advice to work badly. He is transparently fake and attempting to be friendly, and behaving in a way that no sane human being would behave, to the extent that even Michael, who is extraordinarily self-absorbed and lacking in the ability to read social cues, is on to him. Michael criticizing somebody else's lack of self-awareness was very funny to me.

Andy's ringtone of himself singing all the parts of the a capella was god-damn hysterical.

I like that Ryan's sort of beta male personality leads him to get pushed into things he hates, like the job and the relationship, and then he whines about it. I think he is a good foil to the overbearing characters in the office.

And I think Toby is very funny. I think it is very funny that Michael hates him for no reason, and I think that the actor does a great job in that you can see he takes it very personally, but he never says anything about it. The bit with them taking the bathrobe away from him on Christmas was very funny.

Would you like it better if they used a make-believe company? The Office is supposed to be at least grounded in reality so it would take some of that away if Dwight went to work at Stumples or something like that. I always get taken out of it a little bit when I see a "Cola" can in a scene or when they talk about a non-existant casino on CSI. Of course that makes sense because no real casino would want their name mentioned as a scene of a murder even if it is just tv. In any event I don't get what the big deal is with product placement. What if Michael bought a "Z-pod" for Christmas last year and everybody went ape over it? There's no such thing as a Z-pod. Or instead of going to Hooters they went to a place called Booters or something like that? If they can get away with it by all means use the real companies in my opinion.

Oh yea all that stuff is great and the reason I dont hate this show is because everyone seems real. Ive seen and interacted with people like that and I hate to because theyre a drag, I try to stay away from drags like that in the real word (but its near imposible to online )

But Andy ive never encountered, thank god

Oh and I LOVED Michaels speech where he mentioned Marv Albert, as an avid detester(is that a word?) of Marv, I couldnt stop laughing on that part.

What is your deal with the shredder? If you don't like commercials (like most of us) don't watch the real shredder commercial when it comes on when The Office goes to a commercial break. The point of the shredder gag and Kevin was not to sell shredders. It was just supposed to be Kevin doing something stupid and funny. Don't look so deep into some things.

Nah, Toby is great. And he delivered one of the funniest lines of the season: "Why?"

And he actually was in this episode. He could be glimpsed during the party scenes.

I miss Creed.

Toby is best in small doses doing exactly what he has done so far. It's good to have characters like that.

Creed could also be glimpsed in the episode, but had no lines in the broadcast version.

Hie thee to the NBC website and watch the extended edition. His two cut scenes are gold.

Creed has a couple hilarious lines in the Producer's cut. "Draw me a map, momma" and "You're not real, man!" were both great.

I didn't notice the placement with the ipod and then the commercial or the Chilis scene and then the commercial, just this one.

Perhaps you didn't read the rest of my posts regarding using a real or made up company. None of the jokes would work with a made up company, so I'm not suggesting that. I don't really feel like posting over and over clarifying (or not) what I meant, so this'll be my last attempt. So much confusion over something that isn't a big deal. Sheesh!

So true. I don't think it could ever get more pointed than when they had Michael in Manhattan visiting his favorite New York Pizzeria - Sbarro.

But the more important question: are the extended cuts considered 'canon'?

I thought the best line of the episode was Jim's after getting an overdose of Andy:

Jim: "I miss Dwight. Congratulations, Universe, you win!"

On the one hand, I can see what Dick is talking about. However, there are times where it's done right and unobtrusive. Smallville would be a good example of product placement/mentioning done horribly.

I also agree with whoopdido. F'rexample...last week on Ugly Betty they went to eat at the White Tassel in New Jersey to eat. You know, the same White Tassel featured in "Harold & Kumar Go To White Tassel"..