LOS ANGELES—In a clear illustration of the extent to which pornography really has infiltrated the brain stems of millennials, an up-and-coming ad agency has cleverly turned the tables on porn’s habitual need to “parody” everything in mainstream with the launch of HotMalm.com, which sounds like it might be a porn site, and wants desperately to be a porn site, but is not a porn site.
HotMalm.com, which is pathetically safe for work despite its warning page, actually promotes and sells beds; specifically, one make of bed, the Ikea Malm model of bed. That’s it, Malm and nothing but Malm, but around that product New York City-based Droga5 has made a site (unaffiliated with Ikea) that is attracting attention not only because of its unique marketing strategy, but also because it is such an obvious labor of love for its creators. But of course it is; they’re millennials!
"The idea for HotMalm.com built up over a span of three years," Asa Block, who worked on the site with Droga5 colleagues Spencer Lavallee and Jen Lu and two freelancers, told AdWeek’s Tim Nudd. "My roommate and I were on the obligatory post-collegiate Ikea trip and buying new beds. Of course, we started giggling at the Malm series and before long, every time someone said the word 'mom' we would reply 'HotMalm.com.' Fast-forward three years and we are both grown men, still living in an Ikea furnished apartment, and still thinking way too much about this stuff. Now, we just have a website to show for it."
The site itself is a hoot, consistent throughout, offering not only porn-style descriptions of the beds, but also parodies of the types of ads found on porn sites, including one for a dating site that takes the surfer somewhere else entirely. There are also Live Web Malms, but they need to be experienced firsthand to be appreciated.
In another sense, however, the site is a horrible fraud. No one should be teased with a Hot Malm, only to be sent to Ikea! How would they like it if the shoe were on the other foot and porn sites tried to trick people into… oh, never mind.
