Office Depot Hires an Animated Dilbert

Office Depot Inc. is giving Dilbert a new job by putting the overworked, undervalued cartoon character to work in a $30-million TV ad campaign to be launched today. The ads will feature two firsts for Dilbert--animation and a voice. The idea behind the campaign for the office supply chain is to contrast Dilbert’s irrational, unfair and arbitrary office world with Office Depot’s organized atmosphere. In one ad, Dilbert says, “Just as I thought, my cubicle is 2 inches smaller today than yesterday.” Then Dilbert’s boss, seated in a huge chair, explains why. “We installed real-time status adjusters in the cubicle walls,” the boss says. “Sensors monitor your work and adjust the cubicle size according to your value!” The 30-second ads are scheduled to run through January on broadcast and cable television networks, Office Depot said.