'Bookbook' ad from Ikea mocks Apple in a brilliant way

Tech ads are a bit messianic these days. Everyone from Samsung to Microsoft is showing idealized devices creating a more beautiful world. But the leader of this vision is certainly Apple.

Like much of Apple's design aesthetic, its all-white, floating smartphone product videos have become iconic. Of course, when something becomes that popular and hallowed — like Jony Ive's clean lines and awe-struck praise of his own creation — it also becomes ripe for parody.

Enter Ikea, the Swedish budget furniture giant that knows a thing or two about simple, iconic design. This week, the chain released a product video for the cutting-edge intuitive technology embodied in its "bookbook™" — also known as its 2015 print catalog.

"Once in a while, something comes along that changes the way we live, a device so simple and intuitive, using it feels almost familiar," gushes fictional Chief Design Güru Jörgen Eghammer.

He goes on to praise the bookbook's "tactile touch technology" — i.e. page-turning — "which you can actually feel," as well as its "eternal" battery life and instantaneous loading "no matter how fast you scroll."

Features aside, you really can't beat the bookbook's price: free. It usually takes the iPhone at least a year to hit that price, and that's with a two-year contract!

Ikea joins a growing tradition of Apple parody videos, not to mention rival ads that just make fun of Apple products.

What do you think? Are these videos giving tech worship the skewering it needs, or is it just sour grapes? Let us know in the comments below.

Benjamin Glaser is a features editor for Dealnews.com, where this article first appeared: http://dealnews.com/features/Ikeas-bookbook-Ad-Mocks-Apple-in-a-Brilliant-Way-/1141477.html