This week, IKEA has begun rolling out a new advertising campaign that touts “all homes are created equal,” as demonstrated by a page in their 2017 catalog prominently featuring an interracial gay couple getting cozy on a couch.
Related: It’s Gays Versus Lesbians In This IKEA Furniture Building Competition
Speaking to AdWeek, Leslie Stone, director of strategic services for Ogilvy & Mather, whimsically asked, “Where did the American Dream go? The idea of asking where did the American dream go was not to show that it went away, but that people are living it every day in diverse ways.”
Related: IKEA Admits To Cooperating With Russian Gay Purge
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There are so many different ways that Americans live—multigenerational, gay parents, etc.—that define the real portrait of the America that’s really out there. If we’d put across 20 different living situations, they’d all be equally powerful.”
Watch one of the new commercials here:
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
That’s nice. Only marred by the dreary decor.
Heywood Jablowme
If they bought any of the DYI wooden stuff, they wasted a week trying to figure it out, then they had to hire a straight guy to put it together, and then it fell apart after six months anyway.
Heywood Jablowme
@Heywood Jablowme: Sorry, I meant DIY not DYI. (maybe DUI would help!)
MacAdvisor
In the example shown, I didn’t see a gay couple.
spiffy
@MacAdvisor: I didn’t see any gay couples in the video either.
And seems like every year, IKEA decorations just get more and more cluttered…
Imperialist
Ikea first showed a gay male couple back in the 1990s. It had one guy telling how he met his partner at (I think) his sister’s wedding, or someone’s wedding.
NateB79
@spiffy: Absolutely. I get wanting to showcase your products, but people don’t usually have 20 blankets and a duvet on a bed, or crap just scattered and stacked everywhere.
Brian
I don’t see this couple as gay-identifying. They could just be 2 ordinary guys cuddling on a couch.
It’s hilarious watching the gay media and desperate gay-identifying men try to interpret all male-male affection as “gay”. It’s also sad and pathetic.
Chris
I don’t have to go overboard to say that acceptance and inclusion are nice, even in an IKEA ad.
Cee
And interracial at that. Two birds with one stone.
ErikO
IKEA is poorly made furniture that most queens would not be dead having in their homes.
Jack Meoff
Ikea have been using photos of same sex couples in their in store room displays for years over here. Don’t they do that in the US?
Heywood Jablowme
@Brian: Yeah, they’re watching football. (Eye roll.) Or maybe wrestling.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Brian: Brain I need to move to where ever the f*ck you live, because apparently the men in your city enjoy cuddling with their male friends. I want to be part of that city; do they also give each other bro-jobs to solidify male cohesion, and possibly spoon each other to foster communal bonds?
I need to know where this magical land is, and you better not tell me Texas.
Bob LaBlah
Forgive my ignorance but I must ask, after looking at the youtube video twice, did I miss the interracial gay couple featured in the article? I must have. Someone, anyone, please tell me at what point in the video THEY, the interracial couple in the photo in the article, are in the commercial?
Queerty, the fact that I personally prefer Ashley Furniture to Ikea notwithstanding I would call them back and demand more money to keep this obvious advertisement ad running on this site were I ya’ll. Its really an insult. And by the way, I STRONGLY advise against eating ice cream or anything else on a $2500 (at least) sofa. I find it a bit tacky for my tastes but that sofa don’t look cheap.