Mother London launched a new campaign for Ikea in the U.K. and Ireland last week titled "Entertaining." The first spot is a music video called "Playin' With My Friends" (the song is performed by Masters in France), which stars a group of kids and their wacky friends—an enormous stuffed bear, a giant toy robot, a life-size action figure, and others—preparing a dinner party in an Ikea kitchen while dancing to the goofy song.
According to the agency, the spot "explores the insight that adults and children all behave better when they're sat around the same table together, rather than the children being sat at the end of the table." At the end of the video, we see that the kids' companions aren't actually oversized toys—they're the parents. Apparently, if you let your children get involved in the entertaining, they'll think you're almost as much fun as a monkey who can carry pots with its feet.
But the real standout piece in the campaign is Mother's making-of video, which is narrated by one of the spot's stars, Darren the Bear. Before being cast in the campaign, Darren tells us in his thick Scottish brogue, he was just your average 8-foot-tall stuffed bear walking the streets of London, trying to avoid stepping on gum (turns out it's difficult to find shoes that fit him) and working as a cleaner in his local Ikea. All of that changes when he's cast in the music video, where he gets to work with some "proper professional" wee'uns and one rather bothersome "action guy," and receives glowing reviews from his castmates. Now, Darren is taking acting classes—and is even dating one of his fellow students.
It's a pretty charming story.
CREDITS
Client: Ikea
Agency: Mother, London
Production Co.: Blink
Director: Dougal Wilson
Producer: Ewen Brown
Editing House: Final Cut
Editor: Ed Cheesman
Post Production: MPC
VFX: MPC
VFX Producer: Julie Evans
VFX Supervisor: Tom Harding
Grade: Jean-Clement Soret
Audio Post: 750mph
Sound Design: Sam Ashwell
DoP: Stephen Keith Roach