The downturn brought a wave of populist fury, stirred up by the good guys/bad guys notion of Wall Street vs. Main Street. But while that fury is now set at simmer, big business remains woefully unpopular—and so in a new commercial, Office Depot harnesses some populist zeal for itself and casts its lot with the little guy.
But Office Depot is a Wall Street-traded big box chain, right? Not so fast. A recent TV spot features Dan, a small-town barber, whose shop is threatened when a large chain moves in across the street offering $6 cuts. So Dan heads to Office Depot for a banner that reads “We fix $6 haircuts.” The banner really sticks it to “Nitro Cutz,” which papers its windows five months later, a satisfying reversal of fortune for Dan.
By casting itself as a Main Street ally, Office Depot slyly gets viewers to forget that it’s a large multinational chain whose low, low prices have put independent stores out of business. Now that’s a reversal.
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