Ikea France wants you to know that 79% of important decisions comes from sitting at the table. In three ads for their latest campaign, the home and furniture company gets down to basics, and shows the bad decisions that can be made when you’re not consulting other people at the kitchen table.
The first one features a woman walking around aimlessly at a nudist colony. For full comic effect, we’re shown how much crazier situations would seem if people were nude – such as grocery shopping, doing yoga and getting hit on at a dance. We’re supposed to feel uncomfortable for the woman we are following along with. The spot then transports to a kitchen table with a group of friends, who ask “what if we all go that naturist camp?” followed by the tagline “79% of important decisions are made at the table.” The point is the main woman wasn’t present at the table for the initial meeting, and therefore was forced into a decision because of that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=073Stf68tSQ
In spot number two, a kid get’s dropped off at camp. The camp looks like the opposite of fun as features everybody frowning looking somewhat zombified, a kid throwing up and general unpleasantness. Basically all the things that were awful about summer camp. Cut to a kitchen table, a family asks if they should send their son to camp, without their son being present at the table, which is followed by the tag. Again, if the kid was present at the table, he could have interjected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoPV_WnJ-Jc
In the final spot, a man is trying to catch some sleep, but another satanic looking man – shirtless and petting what I think is a taxidermied squirrel, while making creepy humming noises – is keeping him awake. Flash to the kitchen table, and a group of men are voting on their next roommate who’s the creepy guy, but they all vote him in, with the man trying to catch some sleep absent. Guess he should have been there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShLha2xc-hQ
The point of the commercials is that if you’re not present for a decision, or sitting around the table when the 79% of important decisions are made, than you might miss out on something like getting sent to a nudist colony or voting in a new creepy roommate.
Either way, these commercials are very strange and I’m not sure how effective they are. Where exactly did they get the 79% figure? That definitely seems like a made up number to fit in with their advertising campaign. These commercials try to be somewhat provocative and silly, and the only one that seemed to actually bang home the point in an effective way was the nudist colony one – and that’s probably because the subject material was somewhat edgy. The other two are sort of funny, but instantly forgettable.
I’m glad Ikea – at least in France – is trying to do more than the traditional boing furniture commercial, I’m just not sure these commercials work. The idea just isn’t fully formed. Does this make anyone want to buy a table?
