Lamp is a television and cinema advertisement released in September 2002 to promote the IKEA chain of furniture stores in the United States.

The 60-second commercial was the first part of the "Unböring" campaign conceived by advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and follows a lamp abandoned by its owner.

Sales of IKEA furniture increased by eight percent during the period in which the commercial ran, and Lamp received a number of awards, including a Grand Clio and the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, considered the most prestigious accolade granted by the advertising community [citation needed].

A sombre, minimalist piano piece plays in the background as the lamp is left by the side of the road on a dismal, windy day.

The agency received the contract in early 2002, taking over from the Minneapolis-based advertising agency Carmichael Lynch, who had held the IKEA account since 2000, when the furniture chain ended its 11-year partnership with Deutsch Inc.[1] According to CP+B partner Alex Bogusky, the idea behind Lamp, and the "Unböring" campaign of which it was a part, was to reposition furniture as a fashion item, and marketing efforts were aimed at Americans who "overspend on fashion purchases such as clothes and shoes, [but] still cling to a 'til death do us part' attitude with their furniture.

MJZ assigned different directors to handle each of the television and cinema commercials and, after a brief selection process, chose Spike Jonze, to oversee production of Lamp.

It aired, along with Moo Cow, during commercial breaks in popular network television shows such as Frasier and Friends, and sports events with wide appeal, such as the 2002 World Series.

[1] It was analysed extensively by the media, with commentaries appearing in publications such as The New York Times,[8] The Washington Post,[9] and the Chicago Sun-Times.

[11] Not all reviewers were as taken with the piece, however, and similarities between aspects of Lamp and advertisements for The Carphone Warehouse running contemporaneously in the United Kingdom were noted.

[12] Criticism was also levelled at the message behind the campaign; Rob Walker of Slate magazine commented: "You could argue that IKEA thus associates itself not just with the useless cluttering of landfill, but with a certain slavery to trend-following.

[21] Many speculated that the surprise result was due to accusations of plagiarism levelled at the makers of Cog by producers of the Swiss film The Way Things Go.

The "furniture guilt" concept was abandoned in the follow-up television advertisements, Kitchen and Living Room (both directed by Wes Anderson), in favour of promoting the design virtues of the brand.