IKEA Pee Ad

Background

IKEA's successful brand concept "Where Life Happens" had proven itself creatively in a variety of ways across almost all media. This time IKEA focused on a print campaign in one of Sweden's most influential magazines for women.

Idea

The whole ad was a pregnancy test that the reader could interact with. Instead of a simple line, indicating a positive result, the ad presented her with a discount price on a new crib for the baby she was going to have if she was a member of the IKEA Family Programme. All in real time, right there in the ad.

Results

The ad and film about it went viral and media all over the world praised the initiative.

Jimmy Kimmel talked about it on his show and the video of that attracted 56,000 views alone.

Our Thoughts

This is an ad designed to be a PR story. Probably, more people have watched the video about it on YouTube alone than the entire readership of the magazine it appeared in. At first I wondered who was going to walk into IKEA with a urine-soggy magazine but reading about the story I discovered that the ad isn't a hidden coupon. It simply reveals the advantages of membership of IKEA's version of Mother & Baby Club.

This is one of those instances when there would have been infinitely more reasons for not buying the ad. Bravo to the client for going with it, knowing some people would be um... pissed off by it (sorry!) but others would see it as evidence of a brand trying to be relevant and interesting.