Ad of the Day: Ikea Praises Ordinary Household Items with Epic Irreverence

Don't take your toilet brush for granted, says a wise new ad from Ikea.

Aptly titled "Everyday Heroes," the spot—by Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors—is a moving celebration of the different household fixtures that improve lives, constantly, in myriad little ways, but still can't get any respect.

It perfectly nails the slow build from suspenseful to smirking to outright hilarious—peaking at the indignity of being a bathroom faucet on which totally rude people are always spitting their toothpaste.

In other words, the concept is brilliantly irreverent—funny because it's true (even if the idea of everyday heroes might be more generally associated with, say, firefighters). And if anyone's going to project human feelings onto a coat rack, or a lamp, it should probably be a furniture seller, and done this well.

Because these are the times we live in, the campaign also includes a Twitter feed, @EverydayHeroes365, narrated by and similarly devoted to honoring the usually unsung domestic workhorses.

It's currently occupied by Grundtal, a meta toilet paper holder that opened a comedy routine with a cute, innocuous 21st century nod to Descartes. But by its third tweet, it had rolled out a dubious one-liner blaming spicy #MexicanFood for making it dizzy. (Why any brand would ever attempt ethnic humor, especially about diarrhea, is not clear.)

Feeling kinda dizzy… This is all your fault, hot Mexican dish! #MexicanFood

— GRUNDTAL (@EverydayHero365) March 10, 2015

Regardless, based on the campaign's overall theme, Ikea probably should have made it about the consumers around the world who nearly lose their minds while trying to assemble its products.

CREDITS

Client: Ikea

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

Title: Everyday Heroes

Art Director: Adam Ulvegärde

Copywriter: Joakim Labraaten

Designer: Martin Joelsson

Senior Account Director: Olle Victorin

Account Director: Katarina Klofsten, Maria Hallenborg

Agency Producer: Jens Odelbring

Digital Producer: Peter Gaudiano, Jimmy Wulff

Production Company: Anonymous Content

Director: Joachim Back

Executive producer: Eric Stern

Producer: Brian Quinlan

Director of Photography: Jan Velicky

Editor: Jeppe Bodskov