OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX), is an office supplies retailer founded in 1988 and headquartered in Itasca, Illinois. 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 its copy and print centers from CopyMax to OfficeMax Print & Document Services, or PDS for short. This change was primarily to prevent customers from getting the idea that it was only a copy service. The furniture section of the retail stores is often marketed separately as FurnitureMax. OfficeMax has over 900 locations in the USA (including Puerto Rico) and over 40 locations in Mexico, and an on-line retailer in the USA (officemax.com). In October 2004, Boise Cascade completed its sale of its paper, building products, and timberland assets. It then renamed itself OfficeMax.

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.

The "What's Your Thing" campaign which launched in January marked the debut of the "Ruberband Man." Based on and featuring the 1976 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 office supplies to employees in a stereotypical office environment. Some have suggested that the character is based on André 3000 of the hip hop duo Outkast, however DDB Chicago has stated he is actually based off of their own service center coordinator, Keenan Linder.

During the back to school season - traditionally, the biggest sales promotion of the year for office supplies retailers - the "Rubberband Man" found himself cruising beaches, swimming pools, playgrounds and amusement parks to provide the kids with their own "things" for school, such as markers, calculators, correction fluid and a very humorous gift of a dictionary to kids working a "Lemanade" stand.

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.

The "Rubberband Man" is no longer the mascot for OfficeMax.