Penny Pranks

From my friends Vinny Warren and Greg Nations-Powell at The Escape Pod in Chicago, comes this very funny campaign for OfficeMax. It's shot by the very same Henry-Alex Rubin who shot last year's Office Max back-to-school prank, "Schooled" and then went on to do something called "Whopper Freakout" for some agency in Colorado called Crispin something-or-other ;)

This latest campaign, which highlights the fact that OfficeMax has a number of back-to-school items on sale for a penny, follows improv actor Matt McCarthy around New York as he attempts to purchase everything from a Central Park carriage ride to an engagement ring to a couple of deli items with pennies. The reactions are priceless, especially in the featured video that takes place in a high-end restaurant. The only one that slightly misses (for me, anyway) is this one with a used car dealer in Queens, and only because the dealer himself is so over-the-top, that he seems like an actor as well. (But others may not notice that.)

They're funny spots, nicely edited and you remember the top-line message "OfficeMax has things for a penny" without a whole lot of product manager gobbledy-gook getting in the way.

NB: Even Gawker and it's crew of commenters seem to like the spots. And they hate everything.