Tetley: ‘Make Time, Make Tetley’

[Written September 2012]

(Agency: Dare; Air date: 11/8/12; Length: 40 seconds)

 

In recent years, Tetley have revived the Gaffer and the rest of the Tetley Tea Folk from ads of old, but their latest offering eschews that bunch, favouring the very topical theme of social media instead. It wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that social media has literally changed the world we live in – arguably both for better and for worse. In the eight years since Facebook launched, the site has acquired 955 million users worldwide (as of June 2012) and on 18 May 2012 floated on the New York Stock Exchange for over 100 billion dollars. We use it to chat with our friends instead of using the phone, we like each other’s posts and share pictures and videos, and use the site to plan get-togethers and other social events. Twitter has been praised for providing news in real time and thus helping to break news stories quicker, and has played an important role in the Arab Spring, helping protesters to assemble and coordinate their actions. However, Facebook has also been used by some to create false identities to deceive and hurt people, and Twitter has been condemned for the part it played in helping the 2011 London rioters plan their carnage. Both sites have also facilitated the rapid rise of trolling on the Internet.

Tetley’s latest ad is interesting because it engages with the debate surrounding social media by offering a critique of it. In the ad, we see a young woman called Kate sitting at her computer and beginning to post a new status on ‘Social Scape’, the Facebook of the Tetley universe. ‘Guess who got her dream job!!!’, Kate writes. But, with her finger hovering over the ‘share’ button, she hesitates, imagining the consequences of her post. Suddenly, her imaginings come to life. We are then treated to a rapid fire succession of annoying and oh-so recognizable characters that populate many of our social network ‘friends’ lists:

‘Like! That’s totes amazing!’

‘Congrats! Lovely! Kiss kiss! Hug hug!’

‘Best wishes for the future. Kiss.’

‘Sideways smiley face!’

This is followed by a deafening cacophony of sounds from the 15 people who surround poor Kate.

Kate sees the packet of Tetley tea bags, then deletes her status update. Instead she takes to email – ‘Right girls, fancy a cuppa?’ the message reads. Three steaming cups of Tetley sit on the sideboard and Kate’s two female friends are round in person to congratulate her on her new job. ‘When you need a real catch up’, the final voiceover goes, ‘make time, make Tetley’.

This ad is interesting because it repeats the question of whether the people on social networks we call ‘friends’ are really so, and more generally opens up the question, What is a friend? As we grow weary of these ever present social networks, at our desks and in our pockets, we may speculate that real friendship isn’t clicking an icon or typing behind a screen but actually taking the time to hang out with someone in person, looking them in the eye as they talk to us and we talk to them, offering emotional support and having physical contact. The ad also addresses the question of the number of friends a person needs to be happy. In the ad, Kate swaps her 15 virtual friends for the two close friends she invites round for a cuppa, suggesting that humans only need a handful of close friends to be happy and the vast majority of the hundreds, or even thousands, of friends some people have on Facebook and the like are not really friends in the traditional sense of the word. 

This is an intelligent ad because it uses a simple premise we can all relate to – bonding over a drink – to not only sell the product but also offer a snappy little critique of social media, whilst most other brands implore us to ‘Follow them on Facebook’. Though they use a very modern theme, Tetley are reminding us that good old fashioned friendships still have value, and have been shrewd enough to link their brand with this sentiment at the same time.