The ad heralding the launch of the 2015 IKEA Catalogue apes Apple’s strategy with a man sitting against a white background talking rhapsodically about a revolutionary new product: the bookbook.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Making fun of Apple Inc.'s hyperbolic marketing style is nothing new. But Swedish retailer IKEA AB has refreshed the joke, using Apple's "magical" advertising tone to promote – of all things – an old-fashioned print catalogue.
The ad heralding the launch of the 2015 IKEA Catalogue apes Apple's strategy with a man sitting against a white background talking rhapsodically about a revolutionary new product: the bookbook.
The video goes over the catalogue's specs in minute detail, with a closeup of a hand operating it (i.e., turning pages) in a style that Apple's ads have made famous. It's worth a watch.
And it's not the first in the marketing community to create humour inspired by the tech giant. Last year, when Google's latest Android marketing system was named Kit Kat, Nestlé SA revamped the website for its chocolate bar brand to mimic the style of a tech company's site. It also revealed in precise detail the specs of the candy, with "diamond-sharp bevels" and a "tri-core, wafer thin CPU."
Apple's inspiration has also been used for more serious purposes. Last summer, Canada's oldest shelter for abused women launched an advertising campaign designed to educate people on issues of abuse. It looked like a smartphone commercial, but instead showed how abusers are using personal technology to control and stalk women.