IKEA airbrushed women out of its Saudi catalogue and called the result a values conflict

In October 2012, Swedish newspaper Metro compared IKEA's Swedish and Saudi Arabian catalogues and found that every image of a woman had been digitally erased from the Saudi version. The altered pages included a bathroom scene where a woman standing at a sink had been removed, leaving only her reflection. More than a dozen women were airbrushed out.

The changes were made for the Saudi market, where strict gender norms limit the public depiction of women. IKEA initially said it should not have happened and issued an apology, stating the catalogue was in conflict with the company's values. The incident drew criticism in Sweden for contradicting the country's gender-equality norms, and globally for showing how far a brand would go to localise its marketing.

IKEA said it would review its procedures to prevent the same thing happening again. The episode became a frequently cited example of the tension between cultural adaptation and brand consistency, particularly for companies that market themselves on progressive Scandinavian values.