A new IKEA campaign out of Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis, suggests that neatly arranged belongings and a tidy house aren’t the only benefits of being organized. In fact, in a spot that Martha Stewart would surely consider heresy, "Organization" shows viewers a neat and tidy domicile and then reveals its inhabitants to be a wild couple in the midst of kinky foreplay.
The folks at IKEA believe that organization is a good thing, for many reasons. "Space Patrol," the other spot in their campaign, also touts organization as key to an enjoyable lifestyle—in this case, because being organized gives you more time to do what you want to do.
Gary McKendry of bicoastal Go Film directed the ads that promote IKEA’s "You Can’t Be Too Organized" sale. "Organization" opens on a couple gazing from their window into the tidy, beautifully arranged home next door. The wife muses, "I wish we could be that organized," to which her husband answers: "People like that never have any fun. They’re uptight." Enter the "uptight" neighbors: a woman clad in leather lingerie, brandishing a whip and playfully chasing her partner through the living room. "They don’t look uptight," the wife across the way deadpans.
In "Space Patrol," a mother nonchalantly manages to pinpoint the whereabouts of an action figure her son asks about, while continuing to do her paperwork. Based on the boy’s answers to her questions—"Stuffed animal or action figure?" "Manual or battery operated?"—she homes in on its location: "Your bedroom, northeast corner, second column, orange box."
The spots depict IKEA "success stories," explained Randy Tatum, the campaign’s art director, who was part of a creative team consisting of co-copywriters Steve Casey and Tom Camp, group creative director Jud Smith and executive producer Jack Steinmann.
"In the case of the mom [in ‘Space Patrol’], she’s relaxed and knows where everything is," noted Tatum. "And [in ‘Organization’] the one couple is the envy of their neighbors—they’re not what you’d think organized people are. They’re not stiff, uptight people."
Neither are the executives at IKEA, a company that isn’t afraid to push boundaries. Such open-mindedness is reflected in its ads created by its former agency Deutsch, New York, which had the account for 11 years. That shop’s quirky, irreverent spots won accolades and put the Swedish furniture retailer on the map in the States.
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This latest IKEA effort—the first creative out of Carmichael Lynch since it won the account late last year—continues the brand’s tradition of humor. The work includes many of the elements from the IKEA review assignment that won the agency the $40 million-50 million account in December 2000.
"Beyond the TV [work]," said Tatum, "I think we offered IKEA some other spokes in the wheel in terms of other types of creative—like Internet, interactive, and on the account side as well. We offered them the total package. That’s not a knock on Deutsch in any way; they did a lot of great work for IKEA for eleven years."
Tatum added that any pressure the agency team feels is self imposed, not a result of trying to compete with the legacy of Deutsch’s work. "We’re just trying to do something that’s going to be great," he stated. "I think our stuff stands up to the other IKEA stuff. We tried to keep the human aspect."
McKendry proved well suited for executing the ideas. Tatum said that the director and the team were all on the same page as far as the goal to keep the characters realistic rather than cartoon-y. To that effect, Tatum observed, McKendry’s casting choices were dead-on.
"We wanted a director who was really good with dialogue and performance, and Gary had some nice examples of that on his reel," explained Tatum. "He also shoots really beautiful film. If we could make the rooms look beautiful without looking overly propped or stylized—just make the film, the colors and the people look terrific—then it would give a lot of depth to the imagery. Gary delivered on everything, and he was fun to work with."
Tatum said that he’d love to work with McKendry again on other projects, quipping, "If we could have brought him back to the agency and stuck him in an office, we would have."
IKEA typically has four or five sales events a year, and its future TV advertising may well be geared towards them, believes Tatum. He added that possibly the agency will create some overall branding campaigns for the client, as well.
Ironically, the spots aren’t airing in Minneapolis, which doesn’t yet have an IKEA—but they are running in 15 markets, including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia.
Although he was involved in ads touting organization, Tatum laughingly admitted to having a messy office. "Until they put a store here in Minneapolis," he said, "I’m just going to be a wreck."
