IKEA encourages Aussies to ‘Have a Go’ in new campaign launching Sunday via The Monkeys
CB Exclusive – IKEA has launched an epic 60s TVC created by The Monkeys, Sydney. It’s the first piece in a new brand platform: ‘Have a Go’, which challenges consumers to take a risk, fight against boring interiors and experiment with home furnishings. Directed by Hamish Rothwell, the story is reminiscent of a Braveheart combat scene with an army of consumers brandishing IKEA products, surging from the countryside towards the suburbs and into their homes.
In an unusual move, an eDM casting call was sent to IKEA FAMILY loyalty card members in NSW to recruit 30 extras for the TVC. Within 48 hours of the eDM being distributed, IKEA received over 900 responses from IKEA fans, resulting in 50 IKEA FAMILY members starring in the final ad.
Says The Monkeys ECD, Justin Drape: “It’s been a fun collaboration and we’re all proud of the result. I wish more clients would take their brave pills like the IKEA team did.”
The 60s and 30s TVC will spearhead the activity and air across free to air and pay TV, in cinemas and online from August, with the 30 second TVC making its debut on Channel 7 this Sunday night.
Complementing the traditional media, The Monkeys have built a ‘Have a Go’ page on IKEA’s website which offers consumers tools to experiment with products and it will be built upon over the course of the year. Over the coming weeks and months, ‘Have a Go’ will be further brought to life through outdoor, print, radio, digital, social media and PR, resulting in a steady calendar of activity building up to the launch of IKEA Springvale, Melbourne on 8 September, the largest IKEA in the Southern Hemisphere which will be followed by the opening of IKEA Tempe, Sydney later in the year.
National Marketing Manager IKEA Australia: Rebecca Darley
Advertising Manager: Ellie Quinti
Marketing Specialist: Jacqueline Ling
62 Comments
Obviously filmed in london over the last few days
Nice one and lovely move to get the customers involved.
They could’nae taken their Freedom.
nice one Greidy…
Like the strategy, bit tired of the ”Braveheart analogy though, been done to death, then drawn quatered.
Best ikea work in oz, ever. Well done all
Brilliant. Great concept, and the execution is what we always see from Hamish and Goodoil.
I like the ‘Fight Boring’.
It’s a shame the sign-off is ‘Have a Go’. Entirely different message.
‘Have a Go’ is not what you think before running down a hill to do battle.
Sounds more like a get fit campaign slogan. For Ikea it reads, for me at least, like this:
“Ikea stuff is cheap but tricky to build. You might fuck it up but it’s cheap. Have a go.”
Outstanding. Refreshing. The Monkeys are killing it.
Oh no, the three drunk magpies, have taken inspiration from a famous UK ad campaign again…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y_bUFnoPv4
weird
Stop flinging such poop at us Monkeys.
Love the ad.
Like ‘fight boring’
Hate ‘have a go’
Love Dan Beaumont
I can just hear the client/planner saying ‘we need to create a movement, we have to stand for something, bloah, blah, boring.’ Just like this IKEA and this spot.
All a bit familiar to anyone who remembers St Luke’s ‘Chuck Out Your Chintz’ work for IKEA a few year ago in the UK.
So they’ve changed the great IKEA “Unböring” line to “Fight boring”.
Including the use of the umlaut.
Epic.
confused whether the message is ‘fight boring’ or ‘have a go’ ?
This is shit. Everyone involved in this should be shot in the face. I can’t believe they’d have the audacity to rip of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_n83OZ8hPg
Possibly my fav so far for the year.
great performances. the kind of production you would hope to see for ikea.
Good on ya Monkeys
What a load of toss!
At least the Mail on Sunday made me laugh with gags within gags.
True the ending was a cop-out but at least Frankie rocked.
The IKEA spot was one long boring rip-off with an end line which made me go:Huh?
No idea. No pay off!
Only ones who liked it are children too lazy to google or the extras on the shoot.
ballsy. love the pregnant woman.
Great to see work of international calibre being done by local client.
Big ad meets eBay
Big idea doesn’t stand for big crowd. Shit.
Testicles.
Dan Beaumont is so damn hot right now.
Nice to see the Monkeys self-promoting as we’re reliably informed they always do.
Typical Blog Commenter, that’s the hardest laugh I’ve had in ages.
Hey hey we’re the Monkees
People say we Monkee around
But we’re too busy thievin’
To write any new ads down
You know that we want to
Do what the originals do
The only time we get nervous
Is around somethin’ totally new
Hey hey we’re the Monkees
People say we Monkee around
But we’re too busy thievin’
To write any new ads down
We’re just tryin’ to make money
Pitchin’ what we’ve seen at Cannes
We used to be the drunk generation
But now we’re just the flash in the pan
Hey hey we’re the Monkees
You never know whose work will be found
So you better hide your ideas
We may be comin’ to your town
Atypical Blog Commenter, that’s the hardest stool I’ve passed in ages.
Bloody great. Well done Monkeys!
I don’t often comment on this site, but just wanted to say that 1:38s are a disgrace. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Isn’t this just Chuck out your Chintz without the big blue skip?
Yep, Typical Blog Commenter has nailed it.
Let me see if I’ve got this right? If the ABC had done Perfect Day and put it to air the same time as the Opera House ran The Ship Song there’d be people in our industry who’d say they’re different ideas?
Ok the ad might not be the freshest thing in the world. But reading what zen Cohen wrote fills me with genuine concern. Mate why would you go to such lengths to be so unfunny. Either you’ve got some growing up to do (assuming you’re over 16) or this industry is screwing with your mind. If it’s the later, find a hobby or move on, this business seriously isn’t worth what it’s doing to you.
nice. i laughed. job done.
@7:34
Our ‘genuine concern’ and that which many of us in the industry have of late is for the lack of originality in the current wave of creatives, especially at the smaller shops, where repurposing the successful ideas of others seems to be acceptable, legitimate behaviour, just as it has sadly become in the music and fashion industries.
It’s not an homage, or a remix, or inspired by, it’s at best derivative, and at worst plagiarism, and at The Monkeys it happens with a frequency that is disturbing.
As far as the ‘growing up to do’ tag you’ve laid on Zen’s critique via reworking the banal theme song of another group built on a copy of an original, it’s probably the Gen X and Y approaches to creative work that are stuck in a suspended state of adolescence, where lazy habits lead to the shameless exploitation of the original work of others.
It may be that in some sense nothing is truly original, but hey, the use of someone else’s concept, down to the the virtually identical execution, albeit for another product, and all without the slightest hint of an attribution in their self promotion is just not on, and should be called out be everyone in the industry in the hope of putting a stop to their practices.
This is the second highly-derivative piece for this client from the Monkeys. The swearing kid radio was so much like the VW Bollocks ad it’s not funny. Question is, as 6.50 suggests, do we blame the current crop of lazy young creatives who see nothing wrong with changing a couple of details and passing off internationally famous work as their own, or do we put it down to a growing acceptance of this practice among CDs and ultimately the juries they sit on? Having been lucky enough to work as a creative at a time when originality was recognised and rewarded, I find this trend for adverting remixes a very poor substitute. Still, emperors new clothes and all that.
The previous comment was meant to be @ 7:24, but even ten minutes late, the message remains the same, stop copying the work of others abroad and reapplying it to work here in Oz. We may be 8-12,000 miles away from the rest of the Western world, but that doesn’t mean we can nick their work, change it ever so slightly and reapply it to our own brief and still claim creativity here on the blog with a big PR rollout.
Have an Original Go.
It’s funny how the rest of the world like and celebrate this work but some people here have clearly got a grudge against the agency.
Ad of the day in the USA.
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-ikea-134106
Pick of the day here.
http://creativity-online.com/work/ikea-have-a-go/24132
6.50, your comment about copying work from abroad is clearly lost on the industry abroad.Tall poppy syndrome is alive and kicking.
Agree on the Chuck Out Your Chintz comments.
Hi JPC.
If you were affended by my comment, get back to UR EDM copy. Az 4 everyone else, I blame Family Guy 4 ppl not being able to cum up with new ideas.
Everyone seems quick to cry “thief!”, but I had not seen Chuck out Your Chintz, or the BBC Perfect Day prior to these posts. Do you think that maybe these guys hadn’t either and perhaps just arrived at a similar concept by coincidence? I doubt these guys actively and knowingly pilfer other campaigns knowing that the blog-detectives would be eagerly waiting to hack the bone.
@10:11
It’s August in LA and NY, the temperatures are sweltering, and only the lowest of juniors are manning the desks at Ad Week and Creativity as their bosses are all in the Hamptons or Malibu with their families, significant others, mistresses, etc.
A bite-and-smile spot Ronald McDonald re-run could have won ad or pick of the day at either of these publications, because there’s no competition and because the interns at the wheel are probably just as dopey as our locals, so that’s hardly a strong argument to support this kind of derivative/repurposed/copied/stolen creative work from the Monkeys.
It’s not Tall Poppy syndrome when the poppies you’re chopping are barely above ground level, and someone else’s poppies to begin with.
these guys would never actively copy anything. they don’t have to….
@1:16
What you haven’t seen, mate, may encompass quite a good deal we’re imagining.
Do you think for a moment that the CDs running this campaign had no knowledge of the most famous ad in IKEA’s history before producing their latest campaign for the local marketers? Or that no one at Monkeys had seen the highly awarded 2007 Mail on Sunday spot that they’ve virtually lifted?
Your argument to counter cries of ‘thief!” is to assert incompetence, inexperience, “gee I didn’t know and somehow just managed to come up with a commercial that looks so much like it’s predecessor that you might assume it was shot in the same location”?
Ask how Matt Waller and Dave Monk, the creative team at BBH in London in ’07, feel about this IKEA spot from The Monkeys, and if they feel ripped off? Or maybe their just happy to have The Monkeys ‘sample’ their work, without so much as a top of the hat to their originality.
@1:16
Have a look at comments #95 by Justin Drape and #97 the last by Anon to rethink the BBC Perfect Day debate.
http://www.campaignbrief.com/2011/07/sydney-opera-house-and-three-d.html#comments
Anyone got a link to ‘Chuck Out Your Chintz’?
10.11, you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel there.
Are you suggesting that the Crispin, Weiden and Fallon work is also only on the Creativity top 20 because people are on holidays? IKEA is no. 1 on the list and in good company for a reason.
And here’s what UK creative Will Farquar (writer of BBC Perfect day spot) said on a post about the Monkeys’ ship song idea.
will farquhar
1 Aug 11
5:08 pm
Hello Australia….this is the BBC calling…well not quite..it’s Will Farquhar here, the writer on the BBC Perfect Day spot.
Well, for my money and speaking as a quietly inebriated Gibbon, I think the Three Drunk Monkeys, the director and the client, should be thoroughly congratulated.
I totally understand the Australian pride that this piece of work stirs up. But is it a rip-off? I don’t think so. Is it a first cousin twice removed of Perfect Day? Yes, probably. And I’d be very happy if people thought it was too!
You see, the similarity occurs in the brief. The Perfect Day spot was conceived to stir up a similar kind of pride in British craftsmanship. More foreigners at the time, praised the BBC than any Pom!
Which is why we didn’t just have a bunch of Brits belting out the song. It wasn’t about jingoism it was about internationalism. The BBC was the envy of the world but the fee paying, man in the street just didn’t realise it.
Incidentally, the most pride I took in the whole project was that the song got to Number 1 in the British Charts for 3 weeks (with all profits going to the BBC charity, ‘Children in Need’).
It eventually got knocked off the Number 1 spot by Teletubbies. Fickle lot us Brits.
In fact, the only gripe I’ve got with the Sydney Opera House is this. The acoustics are terrible.x
@Zen Cohen
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
And Cheeky Monkey – or whatever they call themselves HAVE RIPPED SHIT OFF.
@4:22
Is this a good looking, well executed spot? Yes. Is it good visual storytelling? Yes. Is it funny and interesting to watch? Yes.
Is it also a near exact replica of the idea and execution of another commercial, that was done four years ago, in the UK, by a renowned agency, for another client and product, awarded and recognised for it’s originality? Fuck yes.
Is it therefore an appropriation/lift/copy/theft without credit of the creative work of others? You bet, and whether Creativity, Ad Week, Adcritic, et.al. have realised it or not, as yet, this is work built on the backs of someone else’s idea, and it’s not the first or even the second time in recent memory that this can be said about The Monkeys.
End of story.
4.13pm
Here you go, Chuck out your Chintz:
http://vimeo.com/18046209
Anonymous said:
Outstanding. Refreshing. The Monkeys are killing it.
August 12, 2011 12:20 PM
I take it you are talking about originality?
Couple of facts:
1. This is the type of work that deserves to be lauded on the world stage. The Braveheart reference is made in the story above so it’s pretty clear where the inspiration for the idea came from.
2. Zen Cohen, you’re beyond pathetic.
Hi 6.50
I made the genuine concern comment about Zen Cohen’s state of mind (7.24) I wasn’t focusing on the commercial. I don’t work at Monkeys; I’m not defending the ad, although I do think it’s not bad at all. My genuine concern was about what the industry or life in general can do to some people. I hope Zen Cohen is happy with his day to day, although I expect not. I would encourage him to address this in whatever way he can, rather than spending his effort writing immature negative nonsense on this blog.
@9:08
Couple of facts:
1. This work WAS lauded on the world stage, when it was first done as a take on Braveheart for the the Mail on Sunday’s “Battle of the Sexes” campaign by BBH London in 2007.
2. The IKEA tvc has been almost completely lifted from the work done by Traktor for Partizan and the renowned commercial from four years ago.
3. This is not the first time in the recent past that The Monkeys have reached into the bag of famous internationally recognised work done by others to supply their creative vision for a local client.
4. What could be more pathetic than PRing your work on this blog and having it picked up by a number of international online ad sites when the work that inspired all concerned is not so much as mentioned, as if it were the original idea of the Monkey’s creatives to do a Braveheart reference in the ad world as a campaign for their client IKEA.
5. This numbering thing is very effective, thanks.
From the New Colliers Dictionary of Contemporary Advertising Terminology:
monkey [muhng-kee]
verb, transitive
1. to create commercial advertising based upon the original creative endeavours of others, usually those working at some geographic distance, and to do so without attribution, de facto passing off the work as one’s own creative invention to a client and the public at large, only to claim attribution, or inspiration from the original after the fact, and usually subsequent to being outed in the public media.
noun (common parlance)
1. an individual lifting the work of others and claiming it as his or her own, justifying the activity as a remix, repurposing, homage, inspiration, influence, etc.
2. a modern day form of intellectual property appropriation. In another era it may well have been labeled plagiarism or theft, but in the current state of the industry workplace, the term appears to have very little ethical meaning.
origin: see Sydney, Australia based advertising agency
11.37 Wow dude. Vendetta much?
Let’s celebrate the last independent agency in Australia.
They’re creative, and even if they have derived a number of their better ideas of late from some great historical work abroad, at least they execute the ideas with great flare, choosing talented creative partners in the process, and they go a long way toward making their versions uniquely their own.
Like championing the anonymous on this blog, perhaps The Monkeys value content over creator.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg2AezJo8aQ
(one half of the team that did the Mail on Sunday ‘Battle’ ad at BBH previously mentioned).
And yes i think a few shot look very similar, but i think with any battle scene that’s going to happen. We looked to Gladiator and Braveheart for ‘inspiration’.
But it’s not a blatant rip off. Aren’t there only seven ideas anyway? or is it six and number 7 is a repeat of two?
Like the guy falling into puddle, can’t beat crap falling over gag.
Is it similar stategy to Chuck out your chinz? Yeah a bit i suppose, but same brand , was long time ago, so fair game. it’s only a commercial not art.