Getting to an idea worth fighting for rarely begins from an obvious starting point. Inspired by former Wieden+Kennedy Creative Director Jason Bagley, this series uses provocative questions to mine the Big Ideas That Work Engines for repeatable creative tactics that can help answer them.
This time, we’re asking:
What’s the product thinking about the user?
Here are seven campaigns that probably weren't thought of by asking this question and a few others, but they could have been...
1. Let the Product Feel Abandoned
Imagine the emotional consequences of replacing, discarding or neglecting the product, then use that imagined relationship to change how the behaviour feels.
Lamp — IKEA, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, 2002
@promos.of.history In 2002, Ikea pulled a bait and switch when it made you pity an inanimate object, then quickly chastised you for that. The spot opens with a red lamp, obviously from Ikea, in the corner of a room. Sad piano music pulls on the heartstrings as the lamp gets cast out on to the street. It’s slow, deliberate and agonizing, before flipping a switch. A peculiar Swedish man approaches the camera and says: “Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That is because you crazy [sic]. It has no feelings, and the new one is much better.” This odd man, played by Jonas Fornander, was supposed to encapsulate the entire Ikea brand. ’Ikea Lamp,’ a 60-second TV commercial, was created by ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky and was the first part of the ‘Unböring’ campaign that wanted to position household items as fashion pieces that should be replaced. Director Spike Jonze, perhaps best known for the film Being John Malkovich, focused on creating an ad with a tragic air. He has also worked on tip ads for Gap, Adidas, Nissan and Levi’s, and was aided by production company Morton/Jankel/Zander. Fornander had never acted before being cast in the ad, with Jonze wanting someone who felt like “a worker at Ikea who’d walked out of the store and on to the street.” The commercial was some of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s first work on the account after replacing Carmichael Lynch, which had been with the brand since 2000. Alex Bogusky, partner at the agency, said: “[The campaign was] trying to convince consumers that it is OK to throw out mom’s old coffee table and splurge on a new one. While Americans overspend on ‘fashion’ purchases such as clothes and shoes, they still cling to a ‘till death do us part attitude’ with their furniture. “Americans have as many coffee tables in their lives as they do spouses.” CP+B senior producer Rupert Samuel said of Jonze: “As an agency we had always wanted to work with him, and he really brought [’Lamp’] to life. He turned it into more than what it was on paper.” Lamp was flooded with awards, including a Grand Clio and the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions. It was hugely popular with viewers, and rival agencies had kind words too. Dan Wieden, co-founder of Wieden+Kennedy, said: “Lamp hits audiences like a bullet between the eyes.” It ran concurrently with ‘Moo Cow’ in 2002, which saw a coffee table hold the weight of a passionate couple. Again, the fourth wall is broken by our critiquing Swede.
♬ original sound - Promos of History
IKEA wanted to encourage people to replace old furniture with something new. The practical argument was straightforward. New products could look better, work better and make a room feel different. Instead, the campaign considered the transaction from the discarded product’s perspective.
A woman removes an old red lamp from her apartment and leaves it beside the rubbish. Rain falls. The lamp watches through the window as its former owner enjoys the warm glow of its replacement. Sad music transforms an inanimate household object into something resembling an abandoned pet.
Then a man steps into frame and tells the audience it is feeling sorry for a lamp. “That is because you are crazy. It has no feelings. And the new one is much better.”
The interruption makes the idea. IKEA first encourages us to imagine what the product thinks of its owner, then exposes how completely we have fallen for the illusion. The lamp’s supposed heartbreak makes replacing it feel amusingly ruthless—and therefore easier to do.
The question that could have produced it:
What would the product feel if it watched the customer replace it?
The creative move: Let the Non-Human Take Our Place, from the Creative Engine → Role Reversal and Perspective Shift
