FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 2025--
In celebration of the Easy Button’s 20th anniversary, Staples is bringing back the beloved icon — a move that transcends nostalgia. First introduced in 2005, the Easy Button and its unforgettable catchphrase, “That was easy,” quickly became a pop culture hit, with millions of buttons sold and a lasting place in offices, classrooms, and internet memes alike.
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Now, it returns as a symbol of how Staples has evolved to meet the needs of today’s customers and the realities of modern life. Because, let’s face it, life isn’t easy. From juggling new ways of working to navigating the growing demands at home and on the job, educators, parents, and businesses of every size are balancing more than ever. That’s why “easy” still matters and why Staples is more committed than ever to simplifying life for its customers.
“The Easy Button stood for more than convenience. It represented how Staples took the stress out of getting things done,” said Marshall Warkentin, President, Staples U.S. Retail. “Twenty years later, that promise still holds true — just in more meaningful ways. We now support customers with a breadth of services and solutions, from print and marketing to tech support, shipping, travel, returns, and more.”
“We are thrilled to bring back the Easy Button as a reflection of everything Staples and Staples Business stands for, from supporting school districts, to serving the nation’s leading healthcare systems, and partnering with Fortune 500 companies,” added Michele Parzianello, Chief Sales Officer, Staples Business. “Our expertise extends far beyond office supplies – from janitorial products and breakroom snacks to technology accessories and waiting room furniture.”
The Easy Button returns with a new advertising campaign designed to shift perceptions around the breadth of Staples’ and Staples Business’ expertise. The work features bold creative across out-of-home, digital, social, radio, and streaming platforms, quite literally opening the iconic red button to reveal how far the brand has evolved. At the center of it all, the Easy Button, aka E.B., is stepping out of the store aisles and into your social feeds, bringing a fresh, witty voice to today’s conversations about work. From productivity tips to sharp takes on LinkedIn, E.B. offers a playful perspective on the realities of modern work.
“This campaign is more than a cultural comeback, it’s a bold reintroduction of the Easy Button and what it represents for consumers and businesses in 2025,” said Amy Steel Vanden-Eykel, Chief Marketing Officer, Staples. “Staples has evolved as a business and as a brand, and we’re excited to share how our team of experts today is making work and life easier than ever before. Through this clever, humorous campaign, we’re personifying “E.B.” the Easy Button and putting him back into the spotlight in fresh, relevant ways that will resonate with today’s customers.”
Looking for an E.B. of your own? Staples is offering an exclusive promotion: get a FREE Staples Easy Button with any $50 purchase in-store or online ( offer valid May 28–June 7, 2025, while supplies last¹).
Learn more: https://www.staples.com/thatwaseasy
About Staples
For nearly 40 years, Staples has been a trusted leader in delivering end-to-end workplace solutions for consumers and businesses of all sizes across a broad range of industries. The company provides a comprehensive portfolio of products, strategic solutions, and services including print and marketing, shipping, technology, and travel. Its specialized assortment includes high-quality office supplies, janitorial products, technology, furniture, and breakroom essentials, all supported by best-in-class supply chain capabilities and a dedicated team of experts committed to making the workday easier. Headquartered near Boston, Massachusetts, Staples operates throughout North America via direct B2B sales, e-commerce, and more than 900 retail stores. To learn more, visit your local U.S. Staples store, download the Staples app, explore Staples.com or StaplesBusiness.com, or follow @Staples on social media.
1 This offer is available both in retail locations and online. Expires 6/7/25. Valid on item no. 606396 only. Must have Staples® app to redeem in store or add coupon to cart to redeem online. Limit 1. Exclusions apply. While supplies last. See Staples® app for details.
That was easy
Staples Shopping Bags
Staples Delivery Truck
Easy Button, aka E.B.
Easy is back.
NEW YORK (AP) — Christine Baranski was in the playground outside St. Matthew’s Church in Bedford, New York, about three years ago when she came across Matthew Guard, artistic director of the Grammy-nominated Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
“I love choral music,” she told him.
An Emmy- and Tony-Award winning actor, Baranski went on to attend some of his concerts.
“I was a fangirl basically,” she recalled. “And I think we just said, `Wouldn’t it be fun to do something together?’”
Baranski agreed to narrate a music-and-spoken word version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” last December at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, which owns the original manuscript of the 1843 classic. A recording was made last June at the Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and released Dec. 4 on the LSO Live label.
She will perform it again with the group on Thursday night at the Morgan, which is displaying the manuscript through Jan. 11, and again the following night at The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island, where she will again portray the acerbic Agnes van Rhijn when Season 4 of HBO’s “The Gilded Age” starts filming season four on Feb. 23.
“I have this thing about keeping language alive, keeping beautiful, well-written language,” she said. “Dickens, Stoppard, Shakespeare. We’re getting awfully lazy in our use of the English language.”
She compliments Julian Fellowes, creator of “The Gilded Age” and “Downton Abbey,” for distinguished prose.
“I think he’d play Agnes if he could,” she said. “He gives her the witty stuff.”
Baranski leaned on the skills that earned her an Emmy for “Cybill” and Tonys for “The Real Thing” and “Rumors.”
“You get to bring to life a lot of different characters, none the least of which is Ebenezer,” she said at the library this month. “It’s wonderful for an actor to differentiate in as subtle a way as possible these different characters. As an acting piece, it’s wonderful. And not many women have done it. It’s been done by Alistair Cooke and Patrick Stewart and Patrick Page and all these great actors — but I get to do it with a chorus.”
Guard weaves in underscoring by composer Benedict Sheehan with Baranski’s words and 10 carols that include “Silent Night” and “Deck the Halls” plus “Auld Lang Syne.”
Reciting the entire story would have created a Wagnerian-length evening.
“This manuscript itself is about 30,000 words and we needed about 5,000 to make it a concert length,” Guard said. “I tried to create space in the narrative for obvious musical exclamation points or emotional feelings, almost like arias in an opera.”
Sheehan had worked together with Guard on a 2020 recording “Once Upon a Time” that weaved together the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”
“I said why don’t you commission me to write choral underscoring for the narrative that can kind of stitch together these different choral pieces?” Sheehan said.
Baranski got narration experience in 2023 when she replaced Liev Schreiber with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall for Beethoven’s “Egmont.”
“I could do this the rest of my career,” she thought at the time. “Just put me in a concert hall surrounded by great musicians.”
After working with dialect coach Howard Samuelsohn, Baranski practiced on Zoom to hone a 19th-century voice and avoid cliché.
“I said this is a good warm up for Aunt Agnes because it’s that kind of speech we were taught at Juilliard,” the 73-year-old Baranski said, recalling lessons from Edith Skinner decades ago.
“Sometimes it’s just a question of modulating your voice, just different rhythms and staccato or legato,” she said. “I want the voice of the Ghost of Christmas past to be disembodied… ethereal.”
She didn’t have an urge to join in on the carols.
“We take from each other,” she said. “When the chorus first heard my version of it, I think it subtly influenced the feeling of it and I take from the mood of the carol and bring it into my interpretation.”
“It’s a really exciting back-and-forth actually,” Guard said. “It’s not really totally clear who’s driving the bus at times.”
Baranski hopes the project has a future.
“We want to film this someday in the Morgan,” she said. “Make this a yearly event at the Morgan, because here’s the manuscript and people. It’s just one of those things like Handel’s `Messiah’ or `The Nutcracker.’”
She’s going to gift the CD to her grandchildren, four boys ranging from ages 2 to 12. Among her previous holiday experiences was portraying Martha May Whovier in the 2000 movie “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
“They’re curiously not interested in my even being Martha May in `The Grinch,’” Baranski explained. “Their friends sometimes say: `That’s your grandmother.’ But I just want to be their grandma — do you know what I mean — and not somebody?”
Skylark Artistic Director Matthew Guard and Christine Baranski are interviewed beside "A Christmas Carol In Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas" by Charles Dickens, Dec. 1843," at The Morgan Library & Museum, in New York, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Skylark Artistic Director Matthew Guard and Christine Baranski are interviewed beside "A Christmas Carol In Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas" by Charles Dickens, Dec. 1843," at The Morgan Library & Museum, in New York, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Skylark Artistic Director Matthew Guard and Christine Baranski are interviewed beside "A Christmas Carol In Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas" by Charles Dickens, Dec. 1843," at The Morgan Library & Museum, in New York, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
