Last night I threw on Office Space before bed and because of the prevalence of products throughout the movie I thought I would talk a bit about it.  There are many products that stand out in the movie Jump to Conclusions Mat, The Pet Rock, Red Swingline Stapler, Fax / Printer and Flair, we’ll talk about some  them. I do love this movie although to give fair warning there is some use of foul language, but if you can stand some swears, it is well worth the time.

First the Jump to Conclusions Mat

The Jump to Conclusions Mat, an idea originating from the despair of life in a cubical, later prototyped when funding and time became available and now available online from Thinkgeek.com for $12.95. When Tom Smykowski pitched the idea to three close friends, “You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor… and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO.” they thought it was awful. What great friends (no really I mean it). One of the biggest tricks is to determine if your idea is good and great friends will tell you the truth, hence the difficulty with market research.

As you may remember, the conversation began with The Pet Rock and how it was a great idea because its inventor made a million dollars. Actually the products inventor made several million dollars (equivalent of $56 million dollars today) within 6 months.

The Pet Rock is the symbol of an impulse product, marketed brilliantly during the 70s.  Sure the Pet Rock came with a training manual and a fancy box, but the real marketing was identifying the rock as an idea of a pet without the hassles.  Was it a great idea because the inventor made a million dollars?  Maybe, but the true idea was the marketing behind the product.

The Swingline Stapler was a symbol around the office long before Office Space, but never before has it been such a force of emotion that it could inspire arson…. (who knows what he would have done if he had a PaperPro). As the conversation went between Melvin and Peter, ” But they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn’t bind up as much. And I kept my staples for the Swingline stapler. #2 Ok Melvin. #1 No, it’s not ok because if they make me…if they take my stapler…I’ll have to set the building on fire.”

The Red Swingline, which wasn’t in production before the movie, the stapler in the movie is apparently painted.  Now you can buy Swinglines in red at Amazon.

Of course the movie features other interesting products including Flair (pins with sayings) and the problematic fax machine.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVRITE MOVIES FEATURING PRODUCTS, IDEAS AND INVENTIONS?