Hoping to reinvigorate two flagging brands by combining their diminishing forces, NBCUniversal has signed a deal to license the name of The Office’s fictional paper company Dunder Mifflin to Quill.com, all as part of an effort to combat the real-life “race to the bottom in the paper business” that the show gently mocks each week. In truth, the business world really is becoming increasingly paperless, and more and more consumers are choosing paper suppliers based solely on cost, so Quill.com (owned, ironically, by Dunder Mifflin’s arch-nemesis Staples) has hit upon a solution that is real, and not something a fictional character would come up with out of comical desperation: Make much more expensive niche paper, then market it to fans whose diehard devotion to the show supersedes their own needs to conserve cost.
And in return for their own questionable business decision, they’ll get a package of Dunder Mifflin paper emblazoned with “well-known slogans,” ostensibly, such as “Our motto is Quabity First” and “Get Your Scrant On,” making for a product that is classified as “92 bright—100% fun!” Office managers, imagine the fun you’ll have in your own workplace whenever you notice someone staring quizzically at the strange, Dunder Mifflin-branded ream you procured at a costly premium, and then you point out that, you know, it’s from that show The Office. And then they say, “Oh, right” with a halfhearted smile as they wait for their copies to finish, right before the guy from accounts payable comes in asking why the supplies overhead went up this month.