Ikea Recreated 3 Famous TV Living Rooms Entirely With Its Own Products

The living spaces on television shows are some of the most recognizable anywhere. Week after week, we spend hours there—and though fictional, they can come to feel as real to us as our own homes. 

Ikea in the United Arab Emirates is borrowing off that equity, while putting its own furniture front and center, with a new campaign that recreates the iconic living rooms from Friends (Monica Geller’s apartment), The Simpsons and Stranger Things—featuring only Ikea products. 

It was an exhaustive process. Publicis Spain, the agency behind the campaign, says it spent two months looking for just the right pieces. The results are delightful: 

Friends

The Simpsons

Stranger Things

“The Ikea team worked closely with the creatives for months,” says Vinod Jayan, managing director pf Ikea UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Oman. “They went through hundreds of items to find the perfect pieces that would bring those iconic  rooms [to life]. It was a great collaborative effort that lead up to a stunning result. A true testament of what Ikea represents: a place where everyone can bring whatever idea they see or have to life.”

Below are the actual ads that were made. As the fine copy notes, the only items in the images that aren’t available at Ikea are the electronics and the books.

Friends

The Simpsons

Stranger Things

The idea is to position Ikea as perfect for any family. 

“Families are at the core of Ikea’s business: old and young, traditional and modern, family by birth or by choice,” the agency says. “In the UAE, Ikea faces a bigger challenge to be relevant to all of them, as the population is composed by mostly of expats. To show that Ikea has relevant solutions to all cultures, the brand recreated rooms everyone loves—the perfect inspiration to sell furniture in a way our diverse audience could connect to.” 

Ikea is planning live events where all three rooms will be recreated in Ikea stores in the Middle East. 

The idea of recreating famous rooms from TV shows isn’t new. Hulu memorably rebuilt Jerry’s apartment from Seinfeld back in 2015, and Eight O’Clock Coffee once brought the Central Perk coffee shop from Friends back to life with a pop-up experience. 

CREDITS

Agency: Publicis, Spain
Chief Creative Officer: Eduardo Marques
Creative Director: Juliana Paracencio, Luiz Vicente Simões
Art Director: Diego Fernández-Cid
Copywriter: Guillermo Laureano Ley Núñez
3d Artist: Bruno Rodrigo de Miranda
Illustrator: Bruno Rodrigo de Miranda
Client: Ikea, UAE
Interior Design: Carla Klumpenaar
Consumer Engagement: Carla Klumpenaar
Manager: Amer Yaghi