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Hilarious tourist campaign shows towns that inspired Ikea products

Ash Cant
·3-min read

Sweden is reclaiming the names of towns and lakes, insisting they are more than just Ikea items in a new tourism campaign.

Hoping to "ignite interest" in Swedish destinations, Sweden launched the 'Discover the Originals' campaign at the end of November.

The point of the humorous campaign is to showcase the places which share names with some of Ikea's products.

"Today, millions of people think that Bolmen is just a toilet brush. And if you search for Järvfjället, all you’ll find are pictures of gaming chairs," the campaign said.

"It’s time the world know that these names belong to wonderful places in Sweden."

Pictured is the outside of an IKEA store.
Ikea had a system for naming products after places in Sweden. Source: Getty Images

Visit Sweden promises visiting Lake Bolmen, the namesake of the Ikea-brand toilet brush, is more pleasant than cleaning a toilet.

"This huge lake in Småland has everything you’d expect from one of Sweden’s best lakes: water so clean you could drink from it, lots of freshwater fish, and beaches with kayaks for rent," Visit Sweden said.

"Go for a swim or discover the surrounding nature reserve – by the original Bolmen."

Chair of Smålands Sjörike and municipal council member in Ljungby, Magnus Gunnarsson, where Lake Bolmen is located said it is appreciated Ikea named the toilet brush after the lake.

"But now we would like to show the world that Bolmen is so much more than an item with which you clean your toilet," they said.

"It is an incredibly beautiful place, much loved by us locals."

Pictured is Lake Bolmen in Sweden and an insert of a Bolmen toilet brush, sold at Ikea
Ikea's toilet brush 'Bolmen' is actually named after Lake Bolmen in Sweden. Source: Olle Kirchmeier/Visit Sweden

If you get out of your Järvfjället gaming chair, you could travel to the original Järvfjället in the country's north, where there's not a 5G tower in sight.

"It’s just you, the ground you walk on and the fresh air you breathe," the campaign said.

"Go for a hike, put up your tent, and make sure you have a spare battery for your camera – in the original Järvfjället."

Visit Sweden said most people from around the world don't realise IKEA's products are often named after real places in Sweden.

The whole campaign is essentially an invite for people to travel to the locations and experience them for themselves.

Pictured is Järvfjället, a town in Sweden, and a Järvfjället gaming chair sold at Ikea
Järvfjället is a town hoping to reclaim it's name, after Ikea released the Järvfjället gaming chair. Source: Mårten Dalfors/Visit Sweden

"In Sweden, we are proud of IKEA and in a way you can say that they helped us make Swedish places world-famous through the names they borrowed for their products," Nils Persson, Chief Marketing Officer at Visit Sweden said.

"Now we want, with warmth and a twinkle in our eye, to show the originals behind the product names and invite the world to discover the whole of Sweden."

The campaign said that IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad had a system for how the furniture giant would name products. Different categories were named according to different criterial.

For example, bathroom products are named after Swedish lakes, while chairs and couches were named after towns and villages in Sweden.

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