'Easy To Assemble' Promos Teach the Secrets of IKEA

Valkommen To IKEA (www.easytoassemble.tv) – More bloopers are a click away
Up on Metacafe today is the first of 10 promo faux-IKEA-training videos, like this one above with the venerable Jane Lynch, for Easy To Assemble, the new IKEA-backed series from Illeana Douglas and SXM. SXM, whose clients include Samsung, IKEA, Group M and Blue Man Group, and Metacafe have a content partnership agreement meaning the video portal will get first crack at the series which is slated to launch later this month. Rounding out the cast alongside Douglas is a whole slew of names you know – Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Craig Bierko, Kevin Pollack, Greg Proops, Robert Patrick, Justine Bateman and Ed Begley Jr.

We sat down with Douglas, the show’s creator and star, last month to talk about the series and her thoughts on the future of web entertainment. It’s a great read and well worth taking a look at in case you missed it. She equates the web medium as the “new independent film,” a place where you can have creative freedom and still find a sponsorship partner like IKEA who’s willing to completely trust you.

A little excerpt from the interview:

So for a few weeks we can all get up to speed on life behind the curtains at IKEA. “These spoof training videos really capture the flavor of the main episodes of Easy To Assemble, which will be launched later this month, said Thomas Bannister, CEO of SXM. “On the Internet you can create storylines and characters in a non-traditional, non-linear way. It’s less like creating a product for a slot on the shelf and more like creating a universe to diffuse through cyberspace.”

No official date for the Easy To Assemble release yet, but we do know that the red carpet launch party will be Sept. 18th, so our bets are that it will be shortly thereafter.