Ikea UK dresses PAX wardrobes as dating profiles. It is Mother’s last campaign

Ikea UK has put its PAX wardrobes on posters written like dating profiles. The out-of-home campaign, which appeared this week, is the last work Mother makes for the retailer after 16 years on its UK and Ireland account. VCCP is taking over.

There are three posters. Each shows one PAX wardrobe with the doors open, lit like a contestant on a carpeted stage, with its clothes on show. Each has its own colour scheme, a one-line pitch in the style of a dating app, and the product name and price. The cheapest of the three, PAX/Vikanes, costs £659. The dearest, PAX/Tonstad, costs £1,175. One line reads: “Tall. Well-built. Great in the bedroom.”

Ikea’s Storage is Sexy began as a dating show a week earlier

The posters extend a short dating show, also called Storage is Sexy, whose first two episodes came out in the week of 2 October. In it, single people show off their wardrobes. The posters take the same idea onto UK streets, including some large special builds. LBB lists Kemi Anthony as the client at Ikea UK, Tais Sirote as photographer and iProspect as the media agency.

Mother described the work on LinkedIn as its “most brazen” for the brand. Decision Marketing gave it ten out of ten in its weekly review.

Mother’s Ikea work included 100 cats and a giant Frakta bag

Mother ran Ikea’s UK advertising for 16 years. Its best-known work includes “Cats”, which let 100 cats loose in the Wembley store, the long-running “The Wonderful Everyday” platform, and “Silence the Critics” from 2019. It also wrapped the Oxford Street store in a giant Frakta bag and made a turkey-sized meatball for Christmas.

Ikea moved the account to VCCP earlier this year. VCCP already makes humorous retail work in the UK, such as Co-op’s campaign about the weekly shop.

VCCP’s first Ikea campaign is next

Long client relationships are ending across the industry this year. PepsiCo moved its global media to Publicis after 25 years with its previous agency. For Ikea UK, the open question is whether VCCP keeps The Wonderful Everyday, the platform Mother built. Its first Ikea campaign will answer that.