IKEA Releases 100 Cats Into a Store and the Result is Beautiful

When I ran across this earlier today I assumed that it was going to be some sort of hilarious disaster. A herd of cats running around a furniture store completely unchecked? Bring on the mayhem! Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be as beautiful and heartwarming as the final commercial is. There is a behind the scenes video after the jump where they talk a bit about "the plan" which was really "hey why don't we just try this and see what happens?"  Yet with no real plan to speak of (at least none they convey in the BTS video) the audience is left with a feeling of peace. Peace that not only will they love a home furnished with IKEA products, but so will the furriest members of the family. To me that's the really amazing part of this ad. You have 100 untrained cats running around and the film crew managed to capture amazing moments and bring them all together like this.

Here's a peek behind the scenes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCB7RqGS684

Via Gizmodo

David Bickley's picture

Award winning photographer, Fstoppers writer and entrepreneurial consultant David Bickley is wholly engaged in helping people become more. Be it more confident via the portraits and fitness photos that brought him world-wide recognition, or more profitable in business through mentoring... David lives to bring his client's voice out into the world.

Log in or register to post comments
87 Comments
Previous comments

10 cats died in the makingof this video

this is a fucking commercial.. nothing is happening here.

sucks if your allergic to felines.

Lovely. I can't imagine. These had to be cats with generally calm and outgoing personalities. My guys would have simply ducked under something and hidden!!

A lot of them appeared to be Ragdolls or Ragamuffins (the white with gray faces) which I raise and they are very, very calm people loving cats. Very outgoing and will follow you all around the house :)

I hope no one got lost!

I loved this. :)

Minecraft music

I want another "Simonese!" (that's what my granddaughter used to call Siamese cats). Love the blue points in the video...

I'm super allergic to cats so this would have been awful for me... were they not thinking about, you know... public health and safety? Kittens are only cute when they're not choking you to death and scathing you with a rash.

Oh yes, won't anyone please think of the poor bloody pariahs and their enfeebled constitutions? She's alergic to children, everybody, we'll have to get rid of all the bloody rugrats.

Good thing you don't live in the store.

So HawleyBrett, why do you hate kittens?

Choking you to death? A Kitten? Wow !?!?
Someone just needs to post a video with a cat(s) in it and

every crazy cat hater has to comment!
When I see something I don't like, I don't have the "need" to spread hate.

Nobody has the "need" to spread hate....but spreading cat fur and cat dander in a world where many people are very allergic to it is worse. Imagine being the parents of a child who winds up in the emergency room wheezing or gagging from exposure. It's not enough to blow off that family's dread with snide comments about "hate" when they are trying to, you know, survive.

You didn't actually read the comment, did you? A cat allergy can be a very severe thing.

Cats are highly territorial and this is completely unnecessary added stress to their lives. But whatever sells, right? As long as some douchebag ad people get their idea sold and realized, and IKEA gets another emotional glossy ad out of it to boost their sales ... never mind the emotions of those involuntarily involved in making the ad happen.

There should NOT be any “hey why don’t we just try this and see what happens?” when there are animals involved.

F-you, IKEA and f-you to the idiots who came up with that silly idea. But yeah, I get it, as long as everyone's bottom line and vanity are fed... tough luck, kitties!

Kind of lame, I was expecting something semi-cool or interesting after reading the article.

This is an old advert right ? The catalog says 2011

video #2 0:35
chris brown - animal handler

beautiful but then people like me who are severely allergic can't go in. lol

Awww I love both commercials. I am not a cat owner but those kittys were so beautiful. Though I would own a cat but I have owned a jealous cockatiel for 16 yrs now and he would not tolerate a cat or a dog around the house.

It freaks me out! I am highly allergic to cats. Let me know which store so I do not go there.

That is what I was wondering too. I'm not allergic, but I know several people that are. When we work on film sets together and there's been a cat there even several days before they react badly.

This is a terrible commercial. How dare they use animals to advertise this bullshit store. Not only that but who owns the cats?? Are they trained? Because I can't see how they can be let lose in a store and not be scared/stressed or fight amongst each other. What a stupid advert-.

They said several times that they were untrained and the owners themselves brought them in . . . several different owners, one apparently a breeder.

why all white cat there should be some black cats as well......racism

Umm. I know cats and even 20 cats in a building would be all about squabbles/space/territory.

Clearly the cats realized this and decided to act in a different way, because they are cats. They Know.

They need to play "Blood on the Leaves" in the background!

So how did they herd them out?

Although entertaining to look at, as a cat owner/rescuer, I am sure many of those cats were not at all happy about the situation, and IF they got them all back in the end, they were very lucky.

It was good until the singing.

foi uma festa que fofos

DON'T MEAN TO PUT A DAMPER ON A MEDIA COUP BUT WHERE DID THESE CATS COME FROM??? AND IF THEY CAME FROM A SHELTER WHAT DID IKEA DO TO COMPENSATE THEM FOR THEIR TIME???

There are animal wrangling companies that supply animals for productions such as this. As per the BTS video though, they apparently found many cat owners to come and let their cats run around.

Now make the dog version

What this doesn't show is 100 cats using the sofas as scratching posts.