The Internet recently lit up like the string of Christmas lights festooning Will Byers’ living room thanks to the Swedish furniture-for-the-people store Ikea. Apparently, the living room sets of the iconic Stranger Things, The Simpsons, and Friends living rooms can be had in flat-pack-friendly interior design kits.
This marketing cross-pitch (interior design meets Gen X nostalgia) falls a little short of its own in-house creative in my opinion. Not that I’m not a fan of the aforementioned franchises but I recently spied this pendant lamp advert, which got me thinking:
Where is Ikea’s Rocky Horror Picture Show collection? Is their sly “Science fiction, double function” reference (sing it in your head: “Science fiction, double feature, Dr. X will build a creature…”) an indication of what’s to come? Are they just testing the warm waters of sins of the flesh before rolling out, say, the Floor Show set? If so, I would make it “Mine, mine, mine, ma-ma-mine, mine, mine!” Then I can have a hex key/Allen wrench orgy as I assemble it in my living room. That would look like this:
Until Ikea comes through with a laminated particle board version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the closest one can get to luxuriating amongst the film’s furnishings is to book a room at the castle that was used as its set. Now a luxury hotel re-christened Oakley Court, the spruced-up English manor retains its Victorian Gothic architecture throughout 118 rooms. And nine of those rooms were used for absolute pleasure during production. No assembly required.
