More than 20 years after turning “easy” into an office icon, Staples has created its opposite.

Decades ago, we had a Staples Easy Button in our boardroom. Colleagues and clients loved slapping it after we solved something difficult.

Every press triggered the same chipper voice:

“THAT was easy!”

And somehow it never got old.

I’ve seen those buttons in several client offices too, including one CEO who mi-iight still have his.

That’s an impressive afterlife for an advertising idea.

The Easy Button first appeared in Staples advertising in 2005. Customers liked the fictional prop enough that Staples turned it into a real product, and more than a million were reportedly sold in under a year.

Now Staples has created the opposite:

HARD.

Yes, in all caps.

The new black Hard Button is part of Staples’ “Hard vs. Easy” platform, built around a simple B2B truth: companies put up with clunky processes because they’ve become normal.

Too many vendors. Too many invoices. Late deliveries. Supply headaches. Staples wants businesses to notice the friction again.

CMO Bob Sherwin put it well: Staples is competing with the status quo.

That’s true for every challenger product, and the old Easy Button gives the idea a recognizable symbol.

The typography helps too. The original says easy in friendly lowercase. The new one says HARD like it’s shouting at you.

What I still like most about the original is how it became a ritual.

Solve something difficult, slap the button, laugh, move on.

One of the ideas I explore in I Need That is that brands become more powerful when people can do something with them.

The Easy Button gave Staples a tiny branded behaviour folks wanted to repeat.

I’m not sure the HARD button will have the same staying power. The original celebrated getting something done; the new one represents the frustration you’re trying to get outta.

But as a way to revive what easy once meant to Staples, it’s a pretty good move.

If you’d like help creating and marketing products people feel compelled to buy, the product marketing consultants at Graphos Product can help.