Kids not listening? Long-distance relationship got you down? Living with a narcissist?
Let Ikea help.
There’s already a running joke about a trip to Ikea being the ultimate test of a relationship, with the data to prove it popping up in The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post. But it appears the Nordic monolith may be taking its role as surrogate therapist to heart with its latest ad campaign.
As covered in Ad Week, the “Retail Therapy” campaign takes Sweden’s most common Google searches and applies them to the Ikea products that best solve that particular problem. Do you need to apologize to your girlfriend for something? Buy this. Teenager running up the water bill and leaving your showers cold? Here ya go. Looking for a way to celebrate (… er, grieve) when the kids have moved out? These should do.
The brilliance of the scheme lies in the fact that when someone turns to Google to get insight on their personal issue, Ikea’s product ads are boosted in Google AdWords results, and more likely to show up alongside the forums and self-help blogs they’d otherwise be turning to.
It’s not a permanent change, just a lighthearted follow up to their “Where Life Happens” campaign, which touched on serious and real issues like divorce and separation.
A few more of our favorite renames:
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