Creative Director’s Choice gives creative directors a chance to highlight the current work they think is the best out in the ad world – the ads and campaigns they believe are making a difference.
This week, Pam Fujimoto, executive creative director at Wongdoody, and co-founder of in-house consultancy, June Cleaver is Dead, talks about the evolution of the popular global campaign from Ikea, ‘Where Life Happens.’
I’ve really been liking every evolution of Ikea’s 'Where Life Happens' campaign. It’s a big, lasting platform that tells emotional stories featuring all kinds of families in real, honest ways. I appreciate the brand not taking the shallow showcasing-our-inclusivity-montage approach. Instead, they are telling human stories that just happen to feature a divorced dad, or a single working mom, or an adoption story, or moody teenagers.
This campaign has consistently managed to escape the trap of the “typical” family stereotype, featuring refreshingly believable moments with the patina of real life – and the Ikea products are a seamless part of it.
Lately, they’ve shown the impressive flexibility and creativity of this campaign in ways that are contextually innovative as well. Their very long preroll ads play out super boring mundane moments and ask you to skip them – they beg you to actually. And a print ad that doubles as a pregnancy test (pee on it and a positive result reveals a discount you’ll receive on a Sundvik crib). These are killer examples of a fantastic campaign premise that doesn’t let their campaign platform reign them in and frees them up to do even more. Can’t wait to see what they do next.
Based in Los Angeles, Pam Fujimoto is executive creative director at Seattle agency Wongdoody, and founder of in-house consultancy, June Cleaver is Dead.
To view the video, click on the Creative Works box below.
To see the latest creative ads and campaigns, visit The Drum’s Creative Works section. If you or your creative director would like to feature in our Creative Director’s Choice, please contact Kyle O’Brien.