A retail campaign featuring death, divorce, alcoholism, bankruptcy and the pandemic. That oddity has to get attention. Ikea’s new campaign by Try, The Life Collection 2022, features items of Ikea furniture brought back to Ikea for less than cheerful reasons. The campaign, the follow-up to last year’s Trash Collection, promotes Ikea’s recycling programme.

The campaign film outlines the real-life stories behind some of the items Ikea has sold in its second-hand stores – a wine rack no longer needed because the owner stopped drinking, a bed frame discarded because the owners separated…The campaign is not without humour. There is also a tiered shelving system discarded because the owner gave up trying to assemble it and a chair sent back because the girlfriend thought it was too tacky.

The film is set to a streamlined version of Simple Minds’ song, Don’t You Forget About Me and was directed by Kavar Singh and Niels Windfeldt of Aparent, who also worked on the first campaign and is supported in print and in stores. It is currently running but is expected to extend to other countries.

“We wanted to show how we understand that furniture isn’t necessarily useful forever, ” stated Ikea global marketing manager, Roberto Giannone. “Our new second hand stores are needed because life happens, and we needed a more sustainable way of treating our furniture.”

Ikea’s Trash Collection campaign: