https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls4n99pVi10
Haven’t gotten enough of IKEA’s iconic blue Frakta bag? Here’s IKEA’s loving tribute to its humble carry bag, beautifully filmed. Via Adweek:
Ikea’s iconic blue 99-cent plastic Frakta bag has been in the news lately thanks to fashion house Balenciaga, which made a $2,145 leather version of it. But actually, Ikea was planning on tooting the Frakta’s horn this year anyway—on the occasion of its 30th birthday.
The Frakta can carry almost anything, including, from Ikea’s point of view, a certain metaphoric significance. As an object of utility, it’s perhaps the clearest and most stripped-down example of Ikea’s philosophy of “democratic design”—the merging of form, function, sustainability, quality and low price (as the brand explained it to Adweek last week).
Ikea calls it “the most hardworking bag in the world,” and the recent move to package instructions with it—showing how to cut it into other products—only extends its utility.
“It’s been talked about, made into dog-ponchos, used as a fashion accessory and for exercising—and we think that’s great,” Ikea says. “But the truth is, this plain piece of plastic has an even bigger meaning than that. It summarizes everything we believe in—that design, function, and quality shouldn’t be just for a few.”
This is summed up nicely in the happy-birthday ad for the Frakta below, created by Ikea Creative Hub and agency Acne, which tells us the spot was in the works since February, long months before the Balenciaga news broke.