IKEA AdzzZZzz

A great ad should awaken something in the viewers - or in the case of IKEA’s Complete Sleep collection, lull them to sleep. But how can an ad actually make viewers sleepy?

By harnessing the power of the yawn. Yawns are notoriously contagious. Your dog yawns, you yawn. You yawn when someone yawns in a movie. You probably yawned from reading the word ‘yawn’ eight times in this paragraph. Fact is, the yawn is a powerful tool that can actually evoke a sensation even through a phone screen.

The IKEA Complete Sleep campaign films are set in plush, quiet, and cosy bedrooms – super inviting for anyone ready to drift off. As the camera slowly zooms in, a narrator delivers a purely informative script about the IKEA Complete Sleep collection. But just a few seconds in, he succumbs to a deep, lingering yawn. Despite this, he presses on with the voice over, battling this mega yawn to finish his lines.

These ads come off as infomercials at first, but quickly take a turn, eventually eliciting a yawn in the viewer. Now, all they’re thinking about is sliding into soft, comfortable sheets, and all they’re seeing is IKEA’s Complete Sleep collection.

To make sure these ads hit when people are at their sleepiest, the three films air at key times tied to our natural sleep rhythms: late at night around 10 pm, early morning at 8 am, and, of course, during the infamous afternoon slump. This timing made it even more likely that viewers actually yawned while watching.

Who knew yawning at an ad could be a good thing?