For a lot of, the sound of seagulls brings again completely happy childhood recollections. Vinegar-soaked fish and chips, flashing arcades and slot machines, funfair rides and candyfloss, gritty sand in your cheese sandwiches, and people freezing British waters. For others, it is the racket that shatters sleep – a piercing squawk that carries by way of each road.
I lived in Brighton for a brief stint. Effectively, Hove really. And I can affirm it is attainable to go from adoring the distant name of a gull to loathing their very existence. They’re a menace to society. Comical, and all the time bigger than you count on, they terrorise town with their insatiable starvation for salty chips and their dedication to be heard and seen by way of their screams and, effectively, poop.
So it is charming that IKEA has leaned into this with its newest marketing campaign to announce the opening of IKEA Brighton. Starring the seaside’s most infamous troublemakers, the cheeky advert was shot by photographer Lydia Whitmore and styled by Seiko Hartfield (sure, “gull poop” is an precise credited function). The collection is each a love letter and a realizing wink to Brighton & Hove life.


Locals know the drill. Step exterior, sit on a bench, or look at your automobile… likelihood is, a feathery pal has left you a parting present. It is simply one other a part of town’s every day life, together with dodging summer time vacationers and seafront buskers competing with the gulls for quantity.
One resident, who requested to stay nameless, summed it up: “I believe they’re evil little bastards. However they’re our personal particular little breed of bastards and I would not have it some other approach.” One other added: “It is simply a part of life each Brighton native offers with.”
The work comes from Mom, with media dealt with by iProspect, and was commissioned by Kemi Anthony, Advertising Communications Supervisor at IKEA UK&I. It is a playful, tongue-in-cheek strategy to say “hej” to a metropolis that thrives on character – even when that character generally steals your chips.