The image is accompanied by the strapline, “We’re taking our homes back” and is set to underpin the basis of Ikea’s new branding for the next 12 months.

Ikea has said it hopes to challenge the UK’s perception of ‘home’, asking questions like ‘do you live in a house or a home?’ and ‘are you in it for the money or the love?’.

From tomorrow, an extensive multimedia campaign will incorporate TV, cinema, radio, outdoor, online and PR, accompanied by in-store media activity.

Meanwhile, smaller home retailer Onis has been running its own ‘Not for Sale’ campaign since September 2006. It too features ‘Not For Sale’ signs in front gardens and has been recognised at award ceremonies for being a “unique and highly regarded measure of excellence in construction marketing and business development”.

The coincidence looks set to embarrass Beattie McGuinness Bungay (BMB) in its debut work for Ikea. The agency only took over the £12 million advertising account in June after pitching against Wieden & Kennedy and Mother.

Andrew McGuinness, partner at BMB, stressed that his agency had not been aware of Onis’ award-winning activity and that the creative direction had been reached after considerable research into the market, including a study by the Henley Centre.

He added that now he has since been in touch with Onis chief executive Fraser Patterson and is hopeful of creating a collaboration; “Perhaps together we can defeat the Estate Agents,” he joked.

Not everyone immediately saw the funny side. A spokesman at one UK advertising agency said: “I really couldn’t believe it when I saw it. The similarities are amazing, apart from the original campaign costing a tenth of Ikea’s latest drive, it is the same campaign.”

CEO Fraser said: “It’s basically our campaign which we launched a year ago and is still running today. It stands for something much bigger. Moving home has a financial and social cost and it’s not just the house that is Not For Sale; the fabric of the community is Not For Sale too.

“It’s basically the same idea, but how will we ever know if it was plagiarism?”

Ikea did not wish to comment at this stage on the similarities. Any future collaboration between the two companies has yet to be decided.

Pictured: Ikea's 'Not for Sale' campaign with Onis' 'Not for Sale' campaign inset. 

Arif Durrani is news editor at mad.co.uk.