My kingdom for an OfficeMax commercial

AdFreak cousin Back Stage has posted an interesting article called “Thirty Seconds to Fame,” about actors who use commercial work as a springboard to decent roles on TV series. The opening section of the piece focuses largely on Eddie Steeples, who achieved fame as the Rubberband Man in the OfficeMax ads and then landed a gig on the NBC comedy My Name Is Earl. NBC producer Greg Garcia had seen the OfficeMax work and invited Steeples for an audition. “[Greg] told me that he liked the character and he loved the commercial and he thought they were the funniest things in the world,” Steeples says. “He even said he wrote to OfficeMax once. He read on a Web site somewhere that someone had said something—that they thought the commercial was offensive and degrading. He wrote back, ‘What are you talking about? Those commercials are funny!’ So he was definitely a fan.” The upshot of the story is that commercial actors walk a fine line between gaining visibility and becoming typecast. In the latter category, the “Where’s the beef?” lady comes to mind.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

June 14, 2006 | Permalink