Innovation fetches IKEA’s ‘ThisAbles’ Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Health and Wellness

Ikea’s “ThisAbles”, a bouquet of innovative product adaptations that aims to make the company’s furniture and goods easily accessible to people with disabilities, took home the Grand Prix for Health and Wellness at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

The campaign, created by McCann Tel Aviv and produced by Craft London, also features a short film on the goods. It stars Eldar who at 32 has been affected by cerebral palsy and has great difficulty getting off his couch at home. “I do everything I can to conduct myself like everyone else,” he says in the minute-and-a-half video. “But in my own home, of all places, I’m surrounded with furniture crying out, ‘cripple.’”

“ThisAbles” addresses such problems with a number of free add-ons, such as pegs that attach to the sofa’s legs, making it simple and easy for people like Eldar to get off from a height.

The attachments are made using a 3D printer in Ikea stores, but can also be printed out by going online. The offering is now available in Ikea retail stores in 127 countries.

Interestingly, Eldar, the actor who features in the product film, is also a copywriter for McCann and helped put together the “ThisAbles” line.

“It shows how important diversity is for our industry,” said Shaheed Peera, Jury President and Executive Creative Director of Publicis LifeBrands, Publicis Resolute and Real Science, adding, “health is now everyone’s business.”

The jurors, Peera pointed out, looked at how technology was being used, adding that simply using technology couldn’t have resulted in an award. “This is not CES,” he said. “Did the technology bring a level of humanity? The ideas that broke through were very scalable.”