The flatpack favourite has landed in Brighton & Hove and is making friends with the locals… starting with the area’s most notorious residents. In a new campaign, the Swedish giant pays playful tribute to the seaside’s cheeky, chip-stealing seagulls.
For many, the sound of seagulls brings back happy childhood memories. Vinegar-soaked fish and chips, flashing arcades and slot machines, funfair rides and candyfloss, gritty sand in your cheese sandwiches, and those freezing British waters. For others, it’s the racket that shatters sleep – a piercing squawk that carries through every street.
I lived in Brighton for a short stint. Well, Hove actually. And I can confirm it’s possible to go from adoring the distant call of a gull to loathing their very existence. They are a menace to society. Comical, and always larger than you expect, they terrorise the city with their insatiable hunger for salty chips and their determination to be heard and seen through their screams and, well, poop.
So it’s charming that IKEA has leaned into this with its latest campaign to announce the opening of IKEA Brighton. Starring the seaside’s most notorious troublemakers, the cheeky ad was shot by photographer Lydia Whitmore and styled by Seiko Hartfield (yes, “gull poop” is an actual credited role). The series is both a love letter and a knowing wink to Brighton & Hove life.
Locals know the drill. Step outside, sit on a bench, or glance at your car… chances are, a feathery friend has left you a parting gift. It’s just another part of the city’s daily life, along with dodging summer tourists and seafront buskers competing with the gulls for volume.
One resident, who asked to remain anonymous, summed it up: “I think they’re evil little bastards. But they’re our own special little breed of bastards and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Another added: “It’s just part of life every Brighton local deals with.”
The work comes from Mother, with media handled by iProspect, and was commissioned by Kemi Anthony, Marketing Communications Manager at IKEA UK&I. It’s a playful, tongue-in-cheek way to say “hej” to a city that thrives on character – even if that character sometimes steals your chips.
