Hasta La Creative!

As we’ve mentioned before, very few companies explore the topic of divorce, or its ramifications for families, in their advertising. It’s just too depressing, the thinking goes, even if it’s also, of course, relatable to so many millions of people worldwide.

A few brands have taken the risk—Honey Maid, of course, and also Ford, which rolled out this beautiful and sad short film earlier this year.

Now, it’s Ikea’s turn. Check out the spot here.

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Last month, Ikea launched an online wedding service. Now, it’s one step closer to offering the full honeymoon package, with a stunt that will bring breakfast in bed to guests of a temporary restaurant.

The furniture store is promoting its bedroom products with the Ikea Breakfast in Bed Cafe, operating this week in London. Reservations are available between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m., and 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. each day, with a menu the brand describes as a “classic Scandinavian breakfast” (what exactly that means—and whether it includes caviar—isn’t exactly clear).

Germaphobes can rest assured that Ikea’s staff will change the sheets between each sitting. Guests can also choose from a selection of pillows (but have to pay for the food). Single beds are not available for those who aren’t newlywed.

Via PFSK.

Now that the elections are over, just think about all the fun craft projects you can do with irrelevant campaign signs—at least, if you live in Brazil.

Civic nonprofit Mobilidade Urbana Sustenável and JWT are out with the Political Furniture project, a campaign in the wake of the country’s elections that shows people how to turn post-ballot sandwich boards into DIY home fixtures.

The project includes instruction sets for how to build coat racks, stools, towel horses, side tables and coffee tables out of discarded campaign materials. You still have to do a fair amount of work—the key element in the designs seems to be thee two-by-fours found in sandwich boards. The wood will need sawing and sanding and screwing, so don’t forget your toolkit.

Alas, campaign paraphernalia in the U.S. doesn’t tend to come with the plywood necessary to spruce up your foyer while you save the plant. If it did, the resulting hat racks would probably prove among the more useful things to come out of recent elections.

More images below. Via Good.

Psst, maybe we shouldn’t take this apartment—the floor seems kind of slanted.

Ikea promoted the opening of its 30th store in France by building an apartment into a vertical rock-climbing wall. Marketing shop Ubi Bene helped devise the impressive outdoor installation in the city of Clermont-Ferrand.

The wall is 9 meters high by 10 meters wide and fitted with steps and grips, allowing the public to navigate among stylish beds, cabinets, tables, chairs, sofas and accessories. (Using harnesses and with safety personnel on hand, naturally.)

The Swedish retailer’s been in fine creative form with its marketing lately. Other notable efforts include lighting a forest with LED lamps to celebrate energy efficient bulbs, pitching its 2015 catalog as “cutting-edge technology” and teaming with Airbnb to give folks a chance to spend a night in one of its stores.

Even if you can’t make it to central France, you can still enjoy a similar Ikea experience at home, because trying to put that furniture together will drive you up the wall.

Via Design Taxi, with images from Ubi Bene on Facebook.

Ikea would like to remind you that the odds are pretty good your parents produced you by having sex on its furniture.

New print ads from the brand in Germany offer a twist on the family-tree motif, with pictures of Ikea beds—dating back to its first, from the late 1940s—inserted in between generations of ancestors. The tagline is, "Where family starts."

That's based on a fun fact—that 10 percent of Europeans were conceived on one of the brand's beds—unearthed by German agency thjnk, which created the campaign (and also made Ikea's clever space-maximizing RGB billboard earlier this year).

Each ad in the new series also features not just beds but one piece of Ikea furniture designed for another room in the house, because why be boring?

Full ads plus credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Ikea
Agency: Thjnk
Chief Creative Officer: Armin Jochum
Creative Directors: Torben Otten, Georg Baur, Bettina Olf
Art Director: Niko Auf dem Berge
Copywriter: Karl Wolfgang Epple
Account Managers: Björn-Thore Bietz, Constanze Frink, Svenja Gollmer, Meike Freymuth
Art Buyer: Lina Eggers
Freelancer Photographer: Kerstin Lakeberg

L’artiste coréen Kyung Woo Han a créé l’installation « Green House » en se basant sur une illusion d’optique assez troublante faite de chaises distordues, suspendues et symétriques, qui se reflètent dans ce qu’on pourrait prendre pour de l’eau. Une installation insolite à découvrir dans la suite.

Here's some hot wood-on-wood action for Valentine's Day, courtesy of Ikea. 

BBH Singapore created this Valentine's Day image, which was posted to the brand's local Facebook page and is being featured on posters in stores, according to Campaign Brief Asia.

Hat tip to Mashable, which reminds readers of the even saucier (though unofficial) Ikea stunt, Hot Malms.

The canvas of Craigslist continues to inspire many a budding copywriter to create odes to objects most of us would dismiss as curb trash. Witness this latest advertisement—for an old loveseat offered free of charge in Cumming, Ga. The headline? "This isn't a love seat, it's upholstered Americana." And it just gets better from there. They posed the much-loved seat next to an American flag, its gentle folds caressing the back cushions like a familiar suitor, the red, white and blue plaid couch reclining in its ageless wisdom, calling like a siren to its new owner. They even recount their myriad experiences with the loveseat in the local vernacular. Enjoy the full text below.

The finest quality in American Furniture building has combined with the tightly knit magical American Family unit and formed something beyond all human comprehension. For over 25 years, a quarter of a century, this two seater has rested weary travelers, introduced budding relationships, assisted multi-generational understanding. It has played host to conversations about marriage, birth, dinner reservations, politics, religion, college graduation requirements, weather, real estate, budget negotiations, funeral arrangements (not necessarily related to the aforementioned budget), car repair, Christmas, SEC football, landscaping, camping, plumbing, gambling, and other subjects too intimate to mention. Now, I know you've seen enough sci-fi to understand that after being exposed to that kind of timeless, bone marrow building, honest-to-God-humanity, inanimate objects pick up an aura of ageless wisdom that can rub off on the next proud owner. Due to a change in our circumstances (possibly even due to the couch itself summoning a new owner), we are forced to part with this . . ., well, . . . member of the family. But how? How do you just let something out of your life that has so many memories, so many feelings, so many odd seating positions? It's not easy. After many sleepless nights, and long conversations, we have decided to part ways with our beloved love seat in the same way we had to say good-bye to Paw-paw. We are going to leave it on the curb until someone comes and picks it up. That's right. You could be the next proud owner! (Of the love seat, not Paw-paw-he's already found one). You too, can experience the joy of sipping coffee beside your significant other while not having to worry about spilling. You may be the one the couch is seeking. It may be ready to guide to your next relationship, business venture, or fishing trip. Do you feel led toward it in some unexplainable way? Yes, we understand. The same thing happened to us, and look where we are now; so rich we can afford to part ways with this gluteus maximus wonder hugging conversation catalyst. Come and get it, and get your life back on track – Now!

Découverte de Snöbär : un meuble inspiré par la plante Symphoricarpos, aussi appelée Snowberry en anglais. Réalisé par Yonder Magnetik, ce fauteuil en chêne propose à la fois un design élégant et sympathique mais aussi un maximum de confort. A découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.

Billy Corgan makes his advertising debut in this bizarre, low-budget and cobranded ad for Resistance Pro Wrestling and Chicago furniture retailer Walter E. Smithe. By way of explanation, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman has been a wrestling fan for years, and opened Resistance Pro as his own wrestling promotion firm in 2011. As if the connection between Smashing Pumpkins and smashing skulls wasn’t confusing enough, this ad also isn’t altogether clear what's being sold. It’s technically an ad for the Chicago furniture shop, which is known for its zany local commercials, but Corgan’s wrestling site gets prominent billing, too. The Chicago Tribune reports that Walter E. Smithe donated $50,000 to animal-rescue group PAWS Chicago as compensation for Corgan’s appearance. The Smithe brothers, who appear in the ad as Corgan’s musical chairs competitors, say they hope the spot will help them launch a new furniture line aimed at 24- to 40-year-olds. Via Rolling Stone.