Ikea wants women to pee on magazine ad to avail discount

A new advertisement by IKEA, running in a Swedish magazine is bizarre for all the wrong reasons. The brand wants women to pee on the page in order to learn about a discount.

Apparently, once the woman urinates on the ad in Amelia magazine, a discount is revealed, only if she is pregnant.

The story was published in Ad Week.

According to an article published in The Washington Post, the promotion reads,

"Peeing on this ad may change your life.”

It continues: "This ad is also a pregnancy test. Pee on the marked area and wait a moment. If you are expecting, you will get a surprise right here in the ad."

Amelia is a magazine dedicated exclusively to women.

The ad uses technology similar to what's in an at-home pregnancy test, according to Ad Week.

If a woman has enough of the pregnancy hormone hCG, the test strip will change colour to indicate she's pregnant. In the Ikea ad, if a woman has enough hCG, the page reveals that a black-brown SUNDVIK crib that costs 995 krona will be on sale for 495 krona.

When converted to dollars, the crib, which costs about $122 without the discount, will cost about $60 with the discount.

However, Ikea has issued a statement saying that the ad was created for a campaign intended only for the Swedish market and has been published in a limited edition of the Swedish magazine Amelia. There are no plans to place this ad in other markets, including the US.