Amy Poelher once quipped that Ikea is the Swedish word for “argument.”
That’s because a trip to one of the Netherlands-based furniture retailer’s stores has been known to test relationships. The company even has a special name for products that are difficult to assemble: “Sometimes,” Allan Dickner, Ikea’s deputy manager of packaging, told Coins2Day in 2015, “we call it a ‘husband killer.’”
But instead of spurring a couple’s therapy session, Ikea now wants its products to help solve its customer’s relationship problems—romantic and familial—in a new ad campaign called “Retail Therapy.” Created by ad agency Åkestam Holst, the campaign renames Ikea products after commonly searched relationship problems in Sweden. The campaign launched a few weeks ago. Here’s one of the new ads.
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Need to impress someone? Ikea’s got a bookcase for that. Raised a son that “plays too much computer games”? The retailer suggests scissors. Got a snorer on your bed? Daybed.
“So whether it’s a snoring husband, a never ending gaming son or any other relationship problem you have, Ikea can come to the rescue,” the agency wrote on Ads of the World. “Or at least put a smile on your face, while you keep googling for an answer.”
