IKEA Icons Take a Cab Ride Home in Oxford Street Store Stunt

IKEA has reimagined a fictional and slightly testing black cab ride home from its new IKEA Oxford Street store, strapping products to the top of a taxi and causing a stir amongst Londoners seeing it pass by on the streets of the city.

IKEA debuted the activation with a short social film that captured the bemusement of passers-by as the iconic London black cab made its way past iconic landmarks around the capital, including Trafalgar Square, over Westminster Bridge and past Buckingham Palace.

The visually striking cab was adorned with a yellow KLIPPAN sofa, POANG armchair, and LAUTERS lamp bundled onto the roof of the car.

The activation was created and executed by IKEA UK and Mother London, to help reassure Londoners that home delivery is available on larger IKEA products from IKEA Oxford Street. All 3,500 items that are available to purchase and take away in store can fit into IKEA’s iconic blue FRAKTA bag, including smaller furniture items such as the LACK coffee table.

Kemi Anthony, marketing communications manager at IKEA, said, “We’ve all seen the memes on social media of people concerned about getting some of our larger furniture items onto the Tube home. So, on opening IKEA Oxford Street – which is of course in such a central and bustling location – we knew we wanted to poke fun at these and also reassure Londoners that they don’t need to struggle!

“IKEA Oxford Street has over 6,000 products on display, with 3,500 available to take home. The remainder, along with the rest of IKEA’s 10,000-strong product range, can be ordered directly from store and delivered to their home, for click and collect or to one of IKEA’s numerous pick-up points across the city. This activation will hopefully help to address Londoners’ concerns about getting their favourite IKEA products home with them, and we look forward to welcoming them come into store to fill their FRAKTAs.”

IKEA Oxford Street opened its doors at 10am on Thursday 1st May with a ribbon cutting ceremony and the unzipping of a giant FRAKTA bag, with Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London and Ambassador of Sweden to the United Kingdom, His Excellency Stefan Gullgren in attendance.