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." After gaining approval for the project, CP+B hired production company Morton/Jankel/Zander (MJZ) to handle production of Lamp and its sister piece Moo Cow, which would air concurrently. 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. In addition to his work on the feature films Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, Jonze's previous body of work included television advertisements such as The Morning After for Nike, Inc. in 2000, and Crazy Legs for Levi's in 2001. CP+B senior producer Rupert Samuel said of Jonze: "As an agency we had always wanted to work with him, and he really brought [Lamp] to life. He turned it into more than what it was on paper." Shooting Lamp proved relatively straightforward. The majority of the script was dedicated to creating the appropriate mood for the piece through camera angles and lighting. While the "punchline" of the ad was rewritten several times, there was little need for improvisation on set. Casting decisions were made by Jonze himself, who said of the choice for the Swedish man: "I really wanted a non-actor for the Ikea guy. I wanted it to feel like he was just a worker at Ikea who'd walked out of the store and on to the street. The guy we cast (Jonas Fornander) had never acted before. A variety of lamps were considered as potential "protagonists" for Lamp, and according to Jonze, the red tabletop lamp in the final piece was settled upon because it "stood out as the most pathetic of the bunch." At the end of the shoot, one of the crew took the prop home. When Crispin Porter and Bogusky asked for it back, they received a note mimicking the commercial, which read: "See? you've fallen for it. You've grown attached to the lamp, and you are crazy." Release and reception Lamp premiered in September 2002, to coincide with the opening of sixty new IKEA stores across the United States. 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