IKEA Takes the Piss with New Pregnancy Test Ad

Trying for a baby? Forget peeing on a stick to find out if you're up the duff - pee on IKEA's new print ad instead and get a discount on your new arrival's crib to boot.

No, we're not taking the proverbial: the flatpack giant's campaign, created by Swedish agency Akestam Holst, encourages would-be mothers to eschew home pregnancy tests and pee on the pages of a magazine for the chance to nab a bargain on a crucial bit of baby kit.

The ad, created in collaboration with Mercene Labs, and currently running in Amelia, one of Sweden's leading lifestyle magazines, uses a similar technology to home tests to detect a pregnancy. However, instead of the usual two blue lines, a positive result will miraculously reveal a special discount code for an IKEA crib.

"In order to make the interactive functions of this ad work in reality, we had to make several technical advancements," Akestam Holst said in a statement. "The pregnancy test strip was used as a starting point, which relies on antibodies that bind to the pregnancy hormone hCG, resulting in a colour change. For scaling up of this technique and adopting it to the physical format of a printed ad, Mercene Labs has used their experience in development of surface active materials for microfluidics and medical diagnostics."

To redeem the discount vouchers, mums-to-be need simply visit their nearest IKEA branch and hand over the evidence. We only hope they've provided the poor store assistants with gloves.