Åkestam Holst Mines Family Drama for Ikea

By Erik Oster 

It’s a pretty standard TV trope: teenager comes home, angry for reasons unbeknownst to her parents, angrily slams the door and sulks in her room. Yet it’s somewhat surprising to see it in ad for Ikea, which is just what agency Åkestam Holst did.

The girl has a series of such bad days, as her dad waits patiently outside her bedroom door in case she wants to talk about it, or just needs some comforting. Eventually, she opens her bedroom door a crack and lets dad in, just as there’s a sudden a product pitch for the Oddvar stool he’s been sitting on. (It must be pretty comfortable for him to endured all those hours of waiting, right?)

The latest in the brand’s “Where Life Happens” campaign, “A Good Listener” takes a serious approach that’s more or less the opposite of DDB Brussels’ “Meet the stars of the new IKEA cataoluge” effort this summer. That’s not to say the brand is a stranger to sentimentality, as Mother London’s “Wonderful Life” spot in April also played on viewers’ emotions. The sudden plug for the Oddvar stool is jarring, even bizarre on first watch. But it is memorable and some may argue the stool played an important role in the little drama.

Credits:
Client: Ikea Sweden
Agency: Åkestam Holst
Creative Director: Magnus Jakobsson
Art Director: Jesper Holst/Michal Sitkiewicz
Copywriter: Mark Ardelius/Rickard Beskow/Magnus Jakobsson
Graphic Design: Sara Bellafesta
Account Director: Kjell Mansson
Planner: Jerker Winther
Agency Producer: Leila Widgren
Account Manager: Agneta Oppenheim
Digital producer: Mimmi Grafström
Production company: Bacon
Director: Martin Werner, Bacon
Executive Producer: Ylva Axel, Bacon
Producer: Joel Rostmark
DOP: Mattias Rudh
Set design: Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnroot
Costume design: Johanna Borggren
Post Production: BaconX

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