Responses by Mother
Background: It’s IKEA UK’s first ever Christmas advertisement. So, our main objective was to create something that would cut through all the usual sentimental, heartwarming Christmas advertisements we’re all used to seeing.
Reasoning: We first came across the notion of home shame, the feeling that your place isn’t good enough to host friends and family, from research conducted by the IKEA team. They have ongoing research, visiting homes across the UK, which really understands how people live their lives and their relationship with their homes. The theme of home shame was a common thread throughout the research. Looking into the date, we all felt it resonated with us. We’ve all felt it at some point, especially at Christmas when the pressure of hosting can be at its annual peak.
Challenges: From the start, we knew that getting the balance between IKEA’s populist design for the masses, and the particular attitude and feeling you get from Grime music needed to be real—both had to come across as authentic and true to their respective worlds, otherwise the whole project would have lacked credibility. In short, the environment had to feel 100 percent IKEA and the music had to feel 100 percent D Double E—with no dilution on either side. The technical challenge then came in post-production, where we spent our time finessing each character. From their facial expressions to body language, we made sure the characters matched the energy we’d gotten from D on the track. The blending of the two worlds, and how the characters brought the track to life, took a lot of creative iteration throughout the concept and production stages.
Favorite details: The fact that we landed honest humor, while remaining 100 percent authentic to the genre. It was important to all concerned not to dilute D Double E’s style in the slightest.
Anything new: How to write bars for Grime and that a lot of people have a lot of love for D Double E. He is a legend.
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