When it comes to marketing and getting customers into the door, Ikea is taking a strange approach to give consumers a discount. According to Newsweek , their newest ad begins with a simple statement .
“This ad can change your life as you know it,” it says.
On the ad itself is an image of a crib as well as a small strip that encourages women to urinate on it. If the woman is in fact pregnant, she won’t just get a simple “yes” or bar as she would on a regular pregnancy test. Her urine will unveil the discounted price of the crib in red.
Adweek reports that famed ad agency Akestam Holst and Mercene Labs worked together to create this unique advertisement. Currently, the ad is only running in Amelia Magazine , one of Sweden’s top magazine’s for women.
Newsweek reminds readers that the ad should be torn off from the magazine before women urinate on it to take the test so they don’t ruin and soak the rest of the magazine in urine.
When asked about the ad, Akestam Holst says that they needed to make a bunch of technological advancements in order for the unique advertisement to work. When the pregnancy hormone hCG is detected, it turns the ad a different color.
IKEA is making a splash with its latest magazine advertisement by asking women to pee on it to uncover a discount code. https://t.co/ZfboDJP5La pic.twitter.com/VgXrPu18T0
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) January 10, 2018
And it certainly does not come as a surprise that social media has been abuzz over Ikea’s latest and most-talked about ad. In just hours after stories of the ad broke, people took to social media to give their two cents on the ad itself.
While many claimed that they were a little weirded out by the ad and made a joke of the whole thing, others applauded Ikea for coming up with something so unique to get customers in the door.
“Imagine working at Ikea and not knowing about this, than being presented with the pee-coupon ” one Twitter user said at the thought of customers actually redeeming the coupon.
“Definitely the coolest pee-based advertising since Animal Planet put urine-scented ads,” another user chimed in.
Of course, many will recall a revolutionary ad that Animal Planet ran back in 2001. According to Adweek , Animal Planet U.K. used urine scented ads to promote a new show . When the dog smells the urine and sniffs the ad, a bigger ad would appear for the show.
Celessence in London, who has also made scents like coffee and washing powder, created the artificial urine scent by using a technology called micro encapsulation.
But no matter what you think about either ad, you have to give a hand to the ad agencies for doing their job and creating a buzz.
