Commercials: Coffee vs Tea

I am increasingly realizing how absurdly outpaced tea ads are by coffee ads. Even in the 1980s (before specialty coffee was popular), there was this Coffee Association Commercial featuring celebrities like David Bowie. More recently, there have been a number of ads in the U.S. and the rest of the Western world featuring coffee as a drug-like substance that is either necessary to function or illicit and (therefore) sexy. Examples:

WNBA coffee commercial makes coffee look like the key to a successful life and links it to skill in sports.

European coffee commercial features coffee as a necessary supplement for daily functioning.

Eastern European (possibly Russian?) Starbucks commercial makes life without coffee absurd and potentially dangerous.

Secret society coffee commercial shows a sexy, exclusive side of coffee.

Cinderella coffee shows coffee as romantic and fated.

How do Western tea ads compete?

Snapple white tea ad portrays tea as simple. (Seriously? Come on...)

Spanish tea commercial shows tea as whimsical. (Meh.)

Lipton ice tea ad makes tea seem like a feel-good, taste-good choice (and is my favorite of the tea Western commercials I've found for that reason).

A different Lipton commercial shows tea as a Zen mind-body-spirit lifter and as an escape from the everyday. (Not bad.)

Lipton also shows tea as refreshing, psychedelic and even sexy, which puts it in competition with coffee. That's important in markets like Portugal (where it was screened and coffee is more prevalent than tea).

From what I can tell, this Pickwick tea ad shows tea as Zen yet urgent. I think it's funny if you know the language (I don't), but it shows a monk grimacing when he sips the tea at the end. (SALES FAIL. ... Or tea and casting fail? Perhaps it's that bad and the guy can't act through the immense badness.)

Of course, there are some cool tea commercials coming out of Asia (notably the weird Mugi-Cha commercial and the cute caterpillar commercial), but these days there are even better Asian coffee ads:

Celebrity coffee ad shows coffee as desirable and more important to reporters than what a famous person has to say.

David Lynch coffee commercial makes coffee mysterious and (seemingly) more important than a missing woman. (There's a whole series of these on YouTube.)

And... Brad Pitt is in not one but TWO Japanese coffee commercials. Need I say more?

Beyond just ads, a popular South Korean drama is based in a coffee shop run by actor/model heartthrob Gong Yoo. (Here, he's in a coffee ad, but re: the show... Talk about product placement!) In Asia, coffee has become hip, edgy, alluringly exotic, cool. Too bad tea hasn't managed to do that on a bigger level here yet!

Tea industry, we have to be able to compete! These ads are WAY better than our ads and (as you can see) they've been around for much longer (in the U.S.) and are way edgier (around the world). Part of the issue is money, as you can learn in somebody's Powerpoint presentation on coffee advertising budgets, but part of it is an issue of cultural identification. We need to finally embrace the idea that tea is cool (at least in the U.S.)! After all, which is the unusual, exotic beverage (in the U.S.)? Which makes you feel better for longer? Which is embraced by tech rock stars like Kevin Rose? Which is the beverage of choice of foodies in-the-know? We can do this, people. I want to see innovation! After all, you weren't attracted to tea because it was the same-old thing, right? Why make commercials that make it seem like something boring that you only drink for health? Or just another goofy ad for another random product?

(Side note one: I'll probably post some weird tea commercials from Asia soon. (There are plenty to choose from.) Look out for it!

Side note two: If you can't do ads, at LEAST do press releases. Don't have time? I write them. Contact me at vee (at) veetea (dot) com for details.)

Tea in SF, NYC

San Francisco is at the heart of America's tea renaissance, and one of the companies that's really fueling this revolution is Samovar. I'm so glad to be a part of their new site, SamovarLife, as a contributing blogger. Here's my most recent blog post on tea in SF and America. It should give you an idea of what's happening with tea in America and, more specifically, SF. If you want more info on tea in SF, check out this tea industry roundtable on tea in SF and beyond.

New York City is probably second to SF in terms of tea culture in the U.S., but it still has a ways to go. I was very sad to see Harlem Tea Room close last year. I recently received an email (copied below) about a new tearoom that is struggling to open in Harlem. If you're in NYC or you visit often, I highly encourage you to check the email below out and consider donating to help them make this dream a reality!


"Dear Friends,

Take a stroll down Seventh Avenue and you'll find an abundance of eateries, but none like Harlem's newest tea room, Tea and Things of That Kind. We are a local, family owned business transforming the culinary and health landscape of our community. We are determined to open our doors but we need your help to realize this dream.

Our Story
The Najieb family, my neighbors for the past three years, started this endeavor in 2007 with two store front properties (a former bodega and laundry mat) on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 137th Street which they completely gutted and renovated.

Our Vision
Laila and Na'im Najieb are returning to their roots as certified holistic health counselors and creating a tea room in our community that embodies three principles: holistic, healthy and healing. They have partnered with holistic health expert, Dr. Llaila Afrika to offer health consultations and workshops to expand knowledge of food that is nurturing and substantive. The vitality of our community starts with nourishing the mind as well as the body.

Your Help
The tea room needs a store sign ($7,000), two sets of China ($400) and white table coverings ($200) which totals $7,600. If you can't afford to purchase an entire set of China or 50 yards of white table cloth at $200 each, a donation of $1-200 will help towards the cost of materials. Our goal is to open in time for Mother's Day. If we can't meet that goal, I'm afraid the tea room will have exhausted most of its resources. We're at the final stretch and we want to give Tea and Things of that Kind a chance to live out its fullest potential -- we've come so far!

You can send your donation in two ways:

1. Paypal Account - pay pal is a secure way to send money from your account via the internet. Our paypal account address is: lflowers83@aol.com
2. Snail Mail - Send a check or money order to Tea and Things of That Kind at 234 West 137th Street, New York, NY 10030 (Attn: Na'Im Najieb)

It is my goal to receive all donations by April 23, 2009. If you can not donate at this time, I ask that you forward this message along to close friends, family and community members that may be interested in supporting Tea and Things of That Kind. I am making a personal pledge to donate to invest in this family-run business because I firmly believe in their vision and commitment to the health and well being of our community.

If you have any questions and/or suggestions regarding fund-raising for the tea room, please feel free to contact me at my email address: LFlowers83@gmail.com.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and support!

Sincerely,

Leniece K. Flowers

P.S. (Our community so desperately needs this tea room and I want to do whatever possible to ensure that the Najieb family's dream is realized -- please help us in this endeavor)."

SNL "Tea Break"

Saturday Night Live recently had a skit about an "Extreme Activities Competition," during which two contestants battled in tasks like balancing a hat on his/her head and pinning a chair down by sitting on it. Of course, this is humorous because there are so many absurd "extreme" shows out there, and this skit is pitting people against each other in activities like "acting casual." In the middle of the competition, they take a tea break. To me, this says a lot about tea in American culture. It's the antithesis of the extreme sport lifestyle, a way to relax and notice the everyday things, like acting casual and even walking. The obvious internet counterpoint to this is Powerthirst: Energy Drinks for People Who Need Gratuitous Amounts of Energy. Why do you need to win at yelling, anyway? Win at contemplation, or happiness, or observation. Win at TEA.

UK Day

For some reason, I feel like talking about the UK today. Perhaps it's because I recently saw this funny little Cultural Guide to the UK that features tea (and is by the guy who did the Radiohead dot matrix printer remix). Or maybe the BBC tea documentary I saw in a fellow blogger's post the other day. Or the British dim sum menu (complete with hot tea, iced tea and tea cocktails) that my Londoner sister sent me last week. Or even the fact that I keep meaning to update my articles on afternoon tea and high tea with information from helpful British readers and from Ellen Easton's NYC Coffee & Tea Festival lecture and book "Afternoon Tea... Tips, Terms and Traditions." (Soon, soon...) Or the responses from people who read my recent Tea & Sympathy tearoom review, saying things like "I totally LOLed" (which I find to be a very humorous cultural juxtaposition in and of itself). At any rate, I suppose I've talked about it now. Readers, care to add anything? Interesting links? A story or two?

Tea and Robbery

Recently, I happened to see two articles about tea and, of all things, robbery. How odd! I thought it warranted a post.

The first article I saw was during research for my recent review of Tea & Sympathy Tearoom. It's a profile of a businessperson, but it tells a story about his father's experience with tea, sympathy and robbery. (You need to log in to the New York Times to read it.)

The second item was something I ran across while researching iced tea for a company's blog I work on. It was a recent news item about a woman in Japan who stopped a robbery with iced tea.

It's amazing how tea can serve as such a strong way of recognizing the humanity in others. Of course, this is part of the theme in Samovar's Passage to Peace video podcast series, but that's another story!

The Leaf Magazine

A new tea magazine has arrived on the scene. It focuses on Cha Do, the Chinese way of tea, and it has some fascinating articles (including one on ancient tea expert Lu Yu by the renowned James Norwood Pratt). Check it out and have a great weekend!

Pantyhose Tea

Though tea is typically drunk without milk in China, Hong Kong has one big exception: "pantyhose milk tea." It is a Sri Lankan or Indian black tea brewed in a "tea sock," strained repeatedly, and blended with milk. It is served in milk tearooms, somewhat similar to the more rowdy diners of NYC. According to a recent Reuters article:

"'You can talk as loud as you like (in the tea-diners) and no one will complain,' laughed Pallas Ng, a bank clerk.

'Starbucks is too quiet. We prefer louder places,' she added."

It sounds like quite a contrast to the US sterotype of tearooms filled with ladies and lace! Read the full article here.