A house move is bittersweet in Ikea's poignant sustainability ad

Swedish spot is an unexpected environmental plug

Published On
Sep 19, 2019

Editor's Pick

Ikea Sweden's "Where Life Happens" campaign continues to focus on bittersweet moments from modern family life, this time with a spot about an empty nester.

The new spot from Akestam Holst, directed by Martin Werner via Bacon,is titled "New Chapter." It depicts a mother helping her young adult daughter prepare for a house move; the daughter is packing up her stuff to move in with her boyfriend. Mom takes time to notice the notches on a wooden bookcase marking her daughter's height over the years before it, too, is packed off into the van. In a poignant moment, the mom sits alone in her daughter's empty bedroom. 

Later, we see the mom arrive at her daughter's new apartment with a bouquet of flowers. She notices the bookcase has been freshly painted over; however, all is not quite as it seems. The screen then highlights two Ikea products; one, the glazing paint, together with price, and secondly the Ivar bookcase, which is "timeless." 

Previous spots from the campaign have focused on divorce, adoption and teenage moods. The campaign has done a decent job of capturing realistic family life while promoting Ikea products in a low-key way. With this one, Ikea says, it's also promoting upcycling and sustainability—and the fact that a house doesn't have to have brand new furniture to be a home.