‘Ikea Metro Ad’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’
We caught these ads last night at Gallery Place, and this big banner was part of a series of ads hawking bookcases and dressers and a big ol’ sale down at Ikea. I admire the timeliness of the ad, but I’ve got to ask: Did y’all really want to commercialize the Inauguration in such a way? Kinda creepy to use the peaceful transfer of power of a nation to sell cheap ass furniture.
But that’s just me, I guess.
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
It’s an epidemic across marketing, however. I’ve heard Ford ads on the radio (along with insurance, bank and other retailers), seen CBS shows advertised with the color/art/’change’ wording, and witnessed numerous web ads doing the same. Not to mention the Pepsi “logo change” and new ad push.
I dislike ‘bandwagonism’ and when it hits the advertising angle, makes me want to vomit.
I kinda agree that it’s a bit opportunistic, but IKEA actually *does* support and implement a lot of the green/sustainable practices that we’re now looking at as a country. In fact they have been doing so for decades and their current CEO has spent the last decade trying his best to make IKEA stores as low impact as possible. The stores do everything from huge solar panels and planted roof gardens, to geothermal heating/cooling systems to amazingly comprehensive recycling and recovery programs. On the manufacturing end they do everything they can to ensure that their materials are purchased from sustainable and responsible suppliers, as well as ensuring the working conditions and treatment of the workers is up to their (quite high) standards. They also focus on non-toxic materials and adhere to the most stringent standards (globally, for example German standards for VOCs and off gassing are FAR stricter, especially for children’s products than American) for their products.
Since my wife and I run http://www.ikeafans.com, we’re not exactly impartial, but I *do* have a lot of background, so I can say with total honesty that IKEA actually is MORE green than most folks would believe, but their corporate culture is very different than US customers are used to, so they don’t tend to shout about it.
Anyway sorry for the long diatribe :-). While I agree that the ad campaign is a bit heavy handed, I do think it’s not entirely inappropriate given some of the principles the new administration is focused on. I certainly think IKEA is a better match than say… Pepsi ;-)
Oh yeah… Concentrated High Fructose Corn syrup, that’s a good thing for ya :-P.