A brand film can put a human relationship at its centre, even leaving the product unused for a moment. The question in a creative review is practical: are viewers learning something about this brand, or watching a touching story that almost any brand could sign? Is stepping back an expression of restraint, or a loss of relevance?
Al-Futtaim IKEA’s Proudly Second Best offers a useful starting point. Ogilvy’s official project description credits DAVID Madrid and INGO Hamburg and describes furniture coming second to parents: children eat, sleep or play on their parents instead of using furniture designed for those activities. (Consulted on 17 October 2026; the page gives no publication date.) The analysis below draws on that written description, not a shot-by-shot viewing of the complete films, and offers no advice on using children’s products.
Second place compares two different roles
Saying that a product is worse than something else can amount to vague self-deprecation. The more interesting comparison here is not with competing furniture, but with parents. Products serve particular purposes in daily life; a close relationship is not a role a purchase can replace. Giving that relationship priority does not invalidate the product’s purpose.
This suggests a creative judgment: a brand does not have to own the most important value in a story to explain its relationship to that value. Furniture can support family life without claiming to create family closeness. Emotion is not simply a larger version of a product benefit. Separating the two can make a brand’s claim less overreaching.
It also explains why “second best” is not a ready-made line for every advertisement. With another product or task, viewers may first need confidence in performance. Without a relevant relationship and situation, humility is a tone of voice, not a substitute for product value.
Unused does not mean irrelevant
Product participation, visual prominence and brand relevance can be considered separately. Participation concerns whether the product is handled or drives an action. Prominence concerns its size on screen and how long it appears. Relevance asks why this kind of product has a reason to tell this story. These dimensions do not have to rise and fall together.
Consider an explicitly fictional suitcase advertisement: two adults reunite at a station, with a case standing beside them while their embrace takes centre stage. The case demonstrates neither wheels nor compartments at that moment, but it can establish that someone has completed a journey. Its connection is to arrival, not to the relationship itself. This is an invented creative example, not a real brand project or evidence of a product outcome.
Putting a suitcase in the frame is still not enough to make the story belong to a particular luggage brand. Why someone has come, what travel preceded the meeting and how the case relates to their actions all deserve creative attention. Without those connections, it is set dressing. A closing product close-up can add information about appearance; it cannot automatically supply the relationship missing from the story.
Change the prop to examine the idea
During a script discussion, try replacing the case with a drink or a phone. Does the story’s proposition remain exactly the same? If it does, the idea may depend only on the emotion of reunion, without explaining the product’s presence. If the substitution removes the clue of arrival, there is at least a category-relevant connection to explore.
This is a question for developing a script, not a test of brand recognition. Category relevance is not brand ownership, either. Establishing the latter requires consideration of the brand’s existing expression, the specific product and this particular proposition. One prop substitution cannot establish a communication outcome.
How far to step back depends on the viewing task
A supporting product role can help explore a brand’s relationship with everyday life. It cannot necessarily answer every reason for watching. Someone familiar with the category may be willing to follow the characters. Someone comparing capacity, installation or operating steps needs to see how the product works. Keeping that person waiting for an emotional ending may not serve their needs.
If a film must carry both brand expression and functional explanation, the two can have different narrative weights: the human relationship develops the emotional proposition, while a specific product passage answers practical questions. Separate pieces within a content programme can also share those tasks. That does not automatically mean commissioning more short videos. What matters is where viewers find the information they need, not whether every asset repeats the same emotional scene.
For a brand whose product is not yet clearly understood, hiding too much can also make the proposition harder to follow. Adding a necessary use context or a clearer view of the product may deserve more discussion than simply keeping a logo on screen for longer. The addition should aid understanding, not merely extend exposure.
A supporting role still needs something to do
To assess whether the role holds together, return to the story’s causal connections. What specific activity does the product support? Why does someone carry it, use it or put it aside? When it yields the centre of attention, can viewers understand to whom, and why? Those answers need to exist in the situation and actions, not only in the presentation explaining the idea.
Stepping back does not require every brand to become quiet. It requires a judgment about which values the brand can meaningfully support and which it should not claim as its own. A product might help someone arrive, finish a task or free their hands. The embrace after arrival need not be presented as an achievement of the purchase. A smaller role can still carry a specific proposition.
If you are defining the relationship between people and products in a brand film, explore ONCE’s video production solutions and bring the product’s purpose, the human situation and the intended audience understanding into the creative conversation.
