• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 9, 2018

Ikea, the Swedish home furnishings giant, has created a print ad that encourages pregnant women to pee on it to get a discount on one of their fine baby cribs. The firm worked with its agency Åkestam Holst, as well as technology company Mercene Labs, to adapt a pregnancy test strip to the printed page.

I don’t know whether this ad is an example of creativity run amok or is just plain gross. It may be a little of both. It’s certainly gimmicky. The brand, it seems, is hoping to have a little fun with a discount promotion on cribs for expecting moms.

I get that. It seems like a cutesy fun promotion. But then again, I’m not a woman, let alone a pregnant one. But I’m married with child so I’ve had the experience of living with a pregnant woman. It’s not all fun and games, trust me. (Don’t get me wrong, there are many beautiful moments!)

In fact, it can be pretty tough at times, being a pregnant woman, judging from my wife’s experience. With the hormones in hyper protect-this-being-in-the-making mode. Thus, the timing of a promotion like the Ikea pee ad could be critical to its acceptance or rejection.

At least that’s my perception. 

To get a more relevant view, I asked my better half what she thought about this Ikea stunt. And let’s be honest, it’s about as stunty as an ad promotion can get. I mean, why not just give the discount to any woman that has a doctor’s note confirming she’s pregnant? OK, that’s pretty boring isn’t it? Not the kind of promotion ad writers would write about.

Speaking of which, Adweek had this one first. Learn the techie details about how the ad was put together here.

Apparently, Ikea has a thing about pee promotions. I came across this little gem from a Google search. It's about a contest one of its stores had in the U.S. It was a How-Long-Can-You-Hold-Your-Pee-In Contest, which involved drinking some water every half hour just to make it interesting. Or sadistic, depending on your point of view.

Anyway, I asked my wife what she thought about the retailer's latest pee ad. She wasn’t impressed. Too gimmicky, somewhat nonsensical and kinda gross.

All right then -- as usual, she gets the last word.