May we see?

I'm curious too..your descriptions. I've never seen an IKEA ad on Public Television. Are you talking about free networks like CBS/NBC ?
Nor have I seen anything obscene.

Just do a search for IKEA on youtube. They are commercials that weren't aired in the United States.

I've seen alot of IKEA commercials on network tv here, and they are all cheesy, but nothing naughty.

I think they tend to show racier commercials in Europe than in the US.

We don't have Ikea anywhere near us.
On some of the tv channels from "far off" I've seen a few and never saw anything like you describe.

google: IKEA You Tube. Also try IKEA UTUBE, IKEA YouTube. There are many, many to look at. Scroll through many of them, not through your eyes, but through the eyes of a child, or worse, a pre-teen/teen's eyes, or through the eye's of society made up of all ages.

And yes, I have seen two come across our television recently.

Some of those ads weren't even aired on TV in Europe.

Some of them, I'm not sure were actually created by the company itself, but are sort of like fan videos.

Or as exercises in creativity, never intended to actually air.

I just looked at one - "Time to get a new mattress". What, you didn't know it was a spring?

So, you are going out finding these commercials on UTube, many which are labeled "Banned" or "Not shown in US" and you are upset that you don't like the content?
I suggest you stop watching them if they upset you.

Yep, commercials that are NOT aired in the United States.

Viewers in other parts of the world have very different tastes and sensibilities.

Advertisements that are appropriate/well received in one market might well cause a scandal in another.

I woudln't get too bent about a company targeting its audience simply because it conflicts with your sensibilities/beliefs, etc.

pretty funny that you are so disgusted, but watched at least 4 of them. LOL

LOL Kat!!

IKEA is a European company, isn't it? I saw several of their commercials and thought they were hilarious. One of my best friends thought the funniest part of all was that I didn't know what a vibrator looked like. I thought it was some kind of hand grenade. LOL

Amen to what Mike said.

What????? No link to these???

Here are a few:

Um....no description

Spaghetti

"Hand Grenade?"

Kat wa and garden spice...welcome to the forum!

Kat wa: (and the others) I had googled IKEA after seeing a piece of IKEA furniture, and all of these hits with IKEA's You Tube ads came up. After pulling up the first one, I actually took the time and went through the list and pulled up several. Actually, one was on television in our area, and it was pretty bad. I personally can not imagine what in the world IKEA is doing, producing this type of an ad for a furniture/home store. While many of you are amused by the ads, and defend their right to use this type of advertising for a furniture store on public television, I am surprised that you each defend a companies right to stoop so low to sell home goods. Amusing for adults? Perhaps. Appropriate for public television that our children and teens watch...no.

So, where do you all draw the line???? I am surprised the bar is so low for so many of you. I am curious, how low is too low????? How low before you think they went too far????????????

P.S. By the way, it was clearly stated that some of these ads have been banned in the U.S. For those who defended a furniture store's right to stoop this low to sell their product, if you are in the U.S. (and a reprentative of a segment of society who thinks such advertising is OK) I don't imagine it will be long before I am in the minority, and such ads are here too.

havn't you ever noticed on blooper tv shows the ones from europe are much more risque than american tv? frankly the spaghetti one was really funny...

we have a year old ikea that you can't get into if you arrive too late. why? not the ads, cause you rarely see an ad (they did have one for clearance sale) it because the still have affordable furniture...

I wish we had an IKEA here. Maybe in 10 years.
Leslie

I have NEVER seen an Ikea commercial on TV. I know the products, as it is widely available in Germany, and my siblings have some, well, no, lots of their stuff.

Since I never saw any on TV, I don't see anything wrong with them.

All I see because of this post is Utube stuff.

Heck, EVERYTHING goes on Utube these days. I am with gardenspice, if you don't like the stuff on Utube, don't go and watch it.

Moni
PS, all ads I saw were hilarious to me. and I would never have seen any, if you hadn't posted about them here. Thus, thanks for the entertainment.

I think there already is a lot of tasteless stuff on our TVs these days and they aren't the least bit funny. Like commercials for every drug under the sun and all their weird side effects, I don't need to see or know about them, I leave that stuff up to my doctors and pharmacists.

But I guess one person's opinion of "low" is different from another person's. I like the European commercials. They get my attention AND I remember the product they're touting, which is exactly what they want. I also like commercials that use animals, but if a person disliked animals, I suppose my taste would be questioned there, too.

And just as an FYI, Kat and Gardenspice are 2 long-time KT'ers from way back, they aren't at all new here.

I agree BB. My youngest kids are 10 and 12. I would rather they NOT see those commercials. There is a time and a place for just about everything, the boner in bed isn't meant for my girls eyes on daytime TV. The sucking woman, although funny to me, doesn't need to be in their veiwing area. And when my 10 year old asks me to explain what that kids is playing with and then, what is it for,, does she really need to know about vibrators at 10 years old? I'm glad they are either banned or not shown in our area.

I found some of them pretty funny too, but I totally agree that I would't want my kids to see them (along with most of the stuff on TV, for that matter!) My kids aren't allowed to watch channels that show commercials, though, so I really don't have to worry at this point.

nicole, I was not aware that there were channels that do not have commercials. What channels are they?

Well, there's public TV. No commercials there.

When I saw these IKEA spots (they were sent to me in an email), I assumed they were created for European viewing. The European culture regards nudity and sexual matters as much more of a natural part of life than we seem to in the US. I doubt anyone in Scandinavia would cover their children's eyes over these commercials. I also doubt they were actually banned in the US. I suspect they were made for a European audience only.

I for one am much more worried about the effect of TV violence on children (not to mention "shock jocks" and sleaze like Jerry Springer, etc.) than I am about the occasional body part.

Susan

We have a great station here in Canada called Treehouse TV. Lots of good kids' shows, no commercials. My kids aren't even allowed to turn on the TV by themselves in case it's on a different channel and they see things I don't want them to see (which is just about everything on there).

Yes, I'm a paranoid Mama. :)

I don't think I'd be too thrilled if my child was playing with a vibrator (if I owned one, of course...) but overall I thought those three commercials were pretty funny, the first and second in particular.
Kids are going to see all of that stuff and hear about it from their friends, we can only isolate them for so long. Personally I don't get bent out of shape about it.
Suzan J

Someone pick me up off the floor. Those were hilarious! Thanks for posting them.
Kathy G in MI

Another TV channel without commercials is Noggin- It's a division of Nickelodeon/Nick Jr. It's all I allow the kids to watch also. I adore the soft, happy little characters.

Blessings,
Haley

I have to admit that the one with the girl sucking up the shoelace is pretty funny. And although I chuckled when the kid playing with his cars, found a mighty "torpedo", I am going to agree that its not appropriate for mainstream television. Perhaps they made that commercial to air on Playboy tv?

The only IKEA ad I have seen on TV is the one where the kid comes home with a low grade on a drawing because the teacher said his imagination is too wild. And then they should the bedroom does have all the crazy colors and patterns shown in his drawing.

I found the commercials linked to above pretty tame, actually. I find the near nudity of almost all women on television to be far more harmful. Pick any cop or law show. The guys are all in suits or shirt and slacks, and the women are all in tanks tops and miniskirts. I find the message of women as sex objects far more offensive than a cute add about a broken bed spring.

I guess I'm just not easily offended.....I do agree that kids should not see most of what's on TV these days but I also agree with SusanJ....we can only isolate them for so long. It's out there and sadly it's bound to get worse.

I have seen far worse than that spaghetti one on tv. Shows like Rock of Love and the Simple Life and the Kardashians. Yes those are all cable tv shows and no I don't watch them but I do watch The Soup, a tv show that makes fun of all these stupid shows. You'd be amazed at what these shows get away with! One of these Ikea commercials during a show like that would be no big deal.

Plus, has no one ever had insomnia? Even on normal cable channels like the BBC and HGTV there are ads for phone lines you can call if you're "lonely" if you watch at 3 am. I know because I record a couple of older shows that only come on at 2-3 am, and I'm glad I can fast-forward those commercials!

Yes, I do think these commercials are inappropriate for kids, but I do think these were created with a specific audience (probably European) or a specific timeslot in mind. Heck, if you're letting your kids watch anything but Nickelodeon or some of the channels Nicole mentioned, then they already know A LOT more than what you saw in the Ikea ads.

The Ikea vibrator ad doesn't seem any worse than the Monistat ad where the young moms are all sitting round the dining room table chatting and the little boy comes in the room playing with his dump truck and in the dumper is a box of Monistat he puts on the table.

The ads for the Carl's Jr. restaurant chain here on the west coast are over the top IMHO. Any Ikea commercials I've seen have all been "clean" ones. None of these companies suffer from lack of sales because of the commercials I'm sure. In fact, Carl's sales have gone up since some of their commercials have been aired from what I've heard. I don't have little kids in the house but the Carl's commercials are offensive to even me.