Ikea Planned This Loving Salute to Its Iconic Blue Bag Long Before the Balenciaga Stunt

Ikea's iconic blue 99-cent plastic Frakta bag has been in the news lately thanks to fashion house Balenciaga, which made a $2,145 leather version of it. But actually, Ikea was planning on tooting the Frakta's horn this year anyway—on the occasion of its 30th birthday. The Frakta can carry almost anything, including, from Ikea's point of view, a certain metaphoric significance. As an object of utility, it's perhaps the clearest and most stripped-down example of Ikea's philosophy of "democratic design"—the merging of form, function, sustainability, quality and low price (as the brand explained it to Adweek last week). Ikea calls it "the most hardworking bag in the world," and the recent move to package instructions with it—showing how to cut it into other products—only extends its utility. "It's been talked about, made into dog-ponchos, used as a fashion accessory and for exercising—and we think that's great," Ikea says. "But the truth is, this plain piece of plastic has an even bigger meaning than that. It summarizes everything we believe in—that design, function, and quality shouldn't be just for a few." This is summed up nicely in the happy-birthday ad for the Frakta below, created by Ikea Creative Hub and agency Acne, which tells us the spot was in the works since February, long months before the Balenciaga news broke. [kickout id="1"] The film, and the attention around the Balenciaga bag, have made for a pretty nice 30th year for the Frakta, as Acne creative director Johan Holmgren acknowledged. "The team from Acne and Ikea group working on the Frakta campaign enjoyed the engagement," Holmgren says of Ikea's fun ad in response to the Balenciaga bag. "It is fantastic to see how many people shared it and commented on it. It is still going on, people are still hacking away with Frakta. It is fantastic to see the creativity and the engagement." Finally, Acne provided some trivia about the Frakta, so you can surprise and delight your friends: • To test it, someone weighing about 50 kilos stood inside the bag and we lifted it up to see if it would hold. It did. • Frakta means "carry" in Swedish, and that's what it's for, among other things. • Surprisingly, it has over 500 reviews on Amazon with a rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. • We did the math, it can carry around 2,500 meatballs. CREDITS Agency: Acne/Ikea Creative Hub Client: Ikea Creative Director: Johan Holmgren Creative Director Ikea: Morten Kjaer Art Director: Tiago Pinho Copywriter: David Aronson Directors: Tompa & Rondo Project Manager: Lovisa Friman Bendz Executive Producer: Fredrik Skoglund Executive Producer: David Olsson Producer: Tim Mardell Managing Director: Ori Mace Assignment Leader IKEA Creative Hub: Louice Alvarsson Client IKEA: Simone Page Pro. Company Service : Ready To Shoot – production service in Portugal & The Producers Europe. Exc. Producer : Margarida Adónis Producer: Ben Lhomer Prod. Manager: Joana Syneck Casting coordinator : Liliana Santos Production design : Ruth Levy. Wardrobe : Joanne Gatefiled Make up: Antonio Carreteiro Gaffer : Joca Grip: Marco Paulo 1AC: João Natvidade

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Ikea Planned This Loving Salute to Its Iconic Blue Bag Long Before the Balenciaga Stunt

A 30th birthday present for the Frakta

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