Ikea’s Storage is Sexy posters are Mother’s last work after 16 years, as VCCP takes the account

Mother’s 16 years as Ikea’s UK agency have ended with a set of posters about wardrobes and sex appeal. Storage is Sexy, an outdoor campaign for the PAX wardrobe range, is the agency’s last work for the retailer before VCCP takes over the UK and Ireland account, and Mother has called it “our most brazen”.

The Storage is Sexy posters

Three posters show PAX wardrobes with their doors flung open, lit like the star of a stage show, each in its own colourway and with a dating-profile caption: “Tall. Well-built. Great in the bedroom.”, “The sexiest word in the bedroom? Customisation.” and “Why not slip into something a little more… organised?”. They run across the UK, including on special builds, as Decision Marketing reported.

The posters follow a YouTube dating show of the same name, hosted by the influencer Charley Marlowe, in which singles are matched by what is inside their PAX wardrobes. The first two episodes went up on Ikea UK’s channel the week before.

Mother and Ikea

The relationship produced some of the most loved British advertising of the last two decades. Mother let 100 cats loose in Ikea’s Wembley store, made the long-running The Wonderful Everyday platform, made Silence the Critics in 2019, built a giant blue Frakta bag on the Oxford Street store and served a turkey-sized meatball at Christmas.

Why it matters

Agency relationships of 16 years are rare now, and endings usually happen quietly. Mother chose to leave with a joke, and it is a good one: wardrobes have never been sold as sexy, and the copy is exactly the kind of cheeky, confident writing Ikea’s UK advertising has been known for under Mother.

The question now is what VCCP does with an account that has a very clear voice. VCCP has had a strong autumn, with new work for TfL and Vitality, and inherits a client whose British fans expect wit as standard. For Ikea’s wider history of great advertising, see our piece on Ikea’s Swedish ads.