Is That a Commercial or a Game Show? Maybe Both

The Office firm to put 'quabity first' in Staples deal

(NEWSER) - Fans of the Office will soon be able to buy paper made by their favorite company—though instead of purchasing it from Dwight Schrute, they’ll have to get their reams through Staples. The office-supply giant’s Quill.com has reached a licensing deal with NBCUniversal to sell Dunder Mifflin paper, the Wall Street Journal reports. The letterhead must have been approved by Michael Scott: It carries slogans like "Quabity First" and "Get Your Scrant On." More»

Canna Cola looks for 'Snapple market' of THC snacks

(NEWSER) - Sure, there are marijuana soft drinks out there. But the world of "medibles"—snack products made with psychoactive doses of THC—is not that different from any other market in that it's not who does it first, but who does it best. And according to Clay Butler, the teetotaling, drug-free commercial artist tasked with branding Canna Cola, the competition is pretty sad: "You look at all the marijuana products out there, and they are so mom-and-pop, hippie-dippy, and rinky-dink," he tells the San Jose Mercury News . "If someone can put every color on the rainbow on it, they do. If they can pick the most inappropriate and unreadable fonts, they will. And there's marijuana leaves on everything." More»

What's up with the total lack of words?

(NEWSER) - The new Starbucks logo is here: Is it a disaster of Gap logo proportions ? Not quite, but critics are still a bit baffled:

• Why did they remove “those pesky words that say Starbucks Coffee?" wonders Meg Marco on the Consumerist . “Coffee, we assume, was the primary problem. Why? Because Starbucks is a fast food joint.”
• Maybe that’s true—but more importantly, Starbucks doesn’t want to be seen as a chain, Alissa Walker reminds us on Good . The company went so far as to open stores with completely different names that masquerade as independent coffee shops, after all. But will consumers really forget the name—“and all the baggage that comes along with it”—even though that green siren is so well-known?

Parents Television Council Says Underage Girls Are Raunchy Punchlines

(NEWSER) - A parents' watchdog group says primetime TV shows are obsessed with turning teenage girls into sex objects, reports the Hollywood Reporter . "They can tone it down," says the president of the Parents Television Council. The group looked at the most popular shows on broadcast TV (cable got a free pass) and singled out programs such as Two and a Half Men, the Vampire Diaries, Glee, and the Big Bang Theory. PTC has the full report with a link to video examples on its website . More»

Retailer decides to stick with the classic

(NEWSER) - Gap is ditching that ugly new logo . Just one week after it unveiled the cheap-looking design, the retailer announced (on Facebook) that is has decided to stick with its classic white-on-navy look. "We've heard loud and clear that you don't like the new logo," the company said. "We've learned a lot from the feedback." The company also backpedaled from its original solution to the logo mess—crowd sourcing! "There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we'll handle it in a different way," said Gap's North America president. More»