IKEA Italy packs a whole room into one suitcase to rally donations for Ukrainian refugees

In 2022 millions of Ukrainians fled the war with what was left of their home packed in a suitcase. IKEA had already recovered and furnished spaces to welcome Ukrainian refugees, but that was not enough: it had to give them back the warmth of home and drive other people to act.

Show an empty room holding one packed suitcase in every IKEA store, so shoppers feel what refugees carried and donate essential goods.

The campaign packed the contents of a typical room into a single suitcase, exactly as refugees were forced to do, then displayed an empty room with only that suitcase inside in every IKEA branch in Italy. Shoppers walked past the empty display and were prompted to stop and donate essential goods to Ukrainian refugees.

The installation made an invisible loss tangible in every Italian store, prompting shoppers to stop mid-visit and donate essential goods to Ukrainian refugees; the work is preserved in the D&AD Awards Archive as a documented example of the campaign.

The Suitcase was IKEA Italy's 2022 response to the war in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians fled with what remained of their homes packed into a suitcase, and IKEA had already recovered spaces to welcome refugees — but shelter alone, the campaign argued, was not enough.

The creative move was to make the loss visible inside the store. IKEA packed the contents of a typical room into a single suitcase, mirroring what refugees were forced to do, then staged an empty room with only that suitcase inside in every IKEA branch in Italy.

Customers met the stark image while shopping, and it prompted them to stop and take action by donating essential goods to Ukrainian refugees. The campaign is preserved in the D&AD Awards Archive as a documented example of a retail brand turning a distant crisis into a local, actionable moment.

Packing a whole room into one suitcase made the scale of loss tangible in seconds — no statistics or war imagery needed.

Placing the display inside the store met shoppers at the moment they were already thinking about home, furniture and warmth.

Showing emptiness rather than suffering kept the refugee experience dignified while still asking people to act.

The ask followed the emotion: after the empty room, donating essential goods was the natural next step.

To move people about an abstract crisis, render the loss they cannot see: one empty room with one packed suitcase prompts action more powerfully than any plea for charity.

The campaign ran as the displacement crisis continued, extending IKEA's refugee response beyond its recovered welcome spaces into a call for donations. The Suitcase was later collected by the D&AD Awards Archive, where it remains a reference for cause-driven retail installations.