Ikea Unveils "Unboring" Campaign

Ikea: Furniture doesn't have feelings. Swedish furniture retailer Ikea today unveiled its new marketing campaign, the first from Crispin Porter + Bogusky/Miami since the agency won the account at the beginning of the year. The effort -- which will include broadcast, print, outdoor and guerilla components -- is based on the new tagline "Unb?ring," complete with self-conscious umlauts. "Unb?ring" aims to be more than just a tagline, however. Instead, it's a concept explained in "The Unb?ring Manifesto," a mini book slated to be shipped with magazines and available online at Ikea's new website www.unboring.com. "We don't typically love taglines," explains CD Alex Bogusky. "For us Unb?ring is a way to get you to reevaluate Ikea, and we can make other lines out of it." Much the way CP+B made the Mini Cooper the force behind "Motoring," the manifesto makes "Unb?ring" -- the mission of delivering design to the masses at affordable prices -- the essence of Ikea. As the manifesto says: "Making something beautiful that costs $2,000 is boring. Making something beautiful that costs $2 is a revolution." The first TV spot in the campaign, directed by Spike Jonze, shows a woman discarding an old lamp, and replacing it with something new from Ikea. The discarded lamp sits outside her apartment, enduring the elements until a Swedish man steps in. "Many of you feel bad for this lamp," he says. "That is because you are crazy. It has no feelings. And the new one is much better." According to Bogusky, the campaign's first spots "are beginning to introduce the idea that most of us have a relationship with our furniture that we don't enjoy. Most of us have a bare bulb hanging someplace. And we have that bare bulb because we don't think we have an option. But there are beautiful lamps at Ikea for $3.95." "Lamp" will be followed by another spot from MJZ director Clay Williams. Another series, slated to be shot by features director Wes Anderson of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums fame, will follow in November.

Ikea Unveils "Unboring" Campaign

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