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Watch now: IKEA's new advert shows the importance of living sustainably
IKEA has launched a new TV advert encouraging households to live frugally and leave the 'fast-paced world of excess behind'.
As part of the Swedish retailer's new Fortune Favours the Frugal campaign, the one-minute ad serves a simple yet powerful reminder: that time is running out to prevent a climate catastrophe.
In the first few seconds, we see a large meteor of household rubbish shoot towards earth at breakneck speed. From single-use plastic bottles to scraps of metal, it's filled with everything we regularly throw in the landfill.
The clip then goes on to show a young girl in her living room, with the news reporter in the background explaining that we must 'seriously change our habits'. As the girl hits play on her cassette player, we see different households implement various eco strategies at home, including drinking from reusable coffee cups, air-drying clothes, replacing lightbulbs with eco alternatives, and pickling vegetables in jars.
'It's time to wave goodbye to waste and embrace living in moderation,' reads the description on YouTube. 'Because being frugal doesn't just leave us feeling more balanced and content, it's friendlier to the planet too. After all, Fortune Favours the Frugal #WonderfulEveryday.'
The ad is part of IKEA's goal of becoming a fully circular and climate positive business by 2030, as its successful linear model of making, selling and buying will not support the company to survive in the future.
'We've been really ramping up and accelerating our commitment across the business,' Hege Sæbjørnsen, Country Sustainability Manager at IKEA UK & Ireland, told House Beautiful UK in November 2020. 'This is really the perfect time to make sure we play a critical role in making sustainable and healthy living more mainstream and affordable for everyone.'
Last year, IKEA announced the launch of its clever Buy Back initiative, which will see the retail giant buy back unwanted IKEA furniture from customers and resell it as second-hand in store. As well as this, IKEA also opened a standalone second-hand store in Sweden — the first of its kind for the Swedish company.
Further examples of how IKEA is avoiding waste and using resources efficiently include launching energy-efficient induction hobs, air-purifiers, energy-saving cellular blinds, and phasing out single-use plastic from its home furnishing range and its restaurants, cafes and bistros.
'Mainstreaming sustainable and healthy living, becoming people and planet positive and also supporting the creation of a fair and equal society are absolutely the trinity of how we're trying to transform,' adds Hege.
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