Comedian Moves into IKEA

IKEA’s recent marketing campaign, “Home is the Most Important Place in the World,” shows consumers how it could add extra comfort to the places where they live. So when New York City resident Mark Molkoff, 31, found himself temporarily homeless (his apartment was being fumigated), he asked IKEA if it could provide a temporary and comfortable home for him. And one more thing: He wanted to record video from the makeshift living quarters daily.

The company said yes.

The comedian-actor moved into the IKEA store in Elizabeth, N.J., on Monday and plans to stay until Saturday. He will be living in the store for all hours of the day and will eat his meals in the restaurant. His wife decided to stay with relatives.

“My apartment is 80% IKEA anyway; it would be like living at home,” Malkoff said in the video posted on his Web site, www.marklivesinikea.com. The site is updated daily with recap videos of his day at the store.

Malkoff, who currently works as the audience coordinator on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," is best known for his video "171 Starbucks," in which he is shown visiting and consuming purchases at each of the coffee chain's locations in Manhattan in one day.

In his intro video, Malkoff said: “Would [IKEA] really let me crash in their pad? Miraculously they agreed,” he said.

As for me, I’m really not surprised. This past summer, the IKEA in Furuset, Norway provided free overnight lodging to shoppers for a few days last July as part of a promotional effort to become a temporary in-store hostel. The event received worldwide media coverage.

And seeing how Malkoff’s “171 Starbucks” video stint received national news coverage last June, his latest endeavor had to be a shoe-in as well.

Here is another video from Malkoff, showing his move into IKEA on Monday: http://youtube.com/watch?v=z3S5s3EITcQ

— Samantha Murphy