'Sleep-Talkers' Buoy Ikea Mattress Campaign

'Huhhhshtay. That's nice'

“Wheresh de bungee.” “Huhhhshtay.” “Wuzzjakuk. Dukat dukuk.”

Ad writers can only dream of fashioning such scintillating copy. (If AI spits out such stuff, you better check those prompts.)

Real sleepers managed it, though, in a memorable Ikea Canada effort from Rethink.

Folks were filmed over two nights as they slept at a Toronto-area showroom. An audio-video rig recorded their mumbles and unfiltered bits of nocturnal monologue for a series of offbeat product “reviews.”

“The relationship between sleep talking and a good night’s sleep is something that felt both fresh and humorous, tapping into the tone that Ikea has become known for,” says Rethink group creative Zachary Bautista.

Geoff Baillie, also an ECD, adds: “Going into the shoot, we had no idea what we were going to capture. But in the end it was that authenticity of the real sleep-talkers that helped this campaign come to life in an interesting and insightful way.”

“We took an organic approach to the casting call, reaching out to family and friends of friends to find folks who are notorious for sleep talking,” Baillie tells Muse. Also in the mix, he says, were “some stand-ins to help set up certain shots.” (But it’s mostly real, anyway.)

The results are amusing but slightly creepy. In a way, they mirror the expanding and often subconscious paranoia of our 24/7 surveillance world.

It’s enough to keep you up at night.