Apr 3, 2011

tea commercials in China

Tea commercial is a new thing in China. Traditionally, tea was treated as a produce,  like apples and peaches - there were famous producing regions and famous traders, but very few brand names. TV commercials of tea appeared only in recent years. Most tea commercials are for bottled tea and teabag products. But there have been a few nice ones for serious tea products. They caused some controversies whether TV commercial would cause inflated tea prices. On the one hand, I think money spent on TV commercial is eventually paid by the consumer, and that's a factor of price inflation. On the other hand, some commercials are really very nice! After all, even prices of most large tea companies are not as inflated as prices of many other commodities in our life.

San He Tang commercial at Guangzhou subway stations. Oh, beautiful! It cost about 1.5 million rmb ($220K). But many fans believe it's money well spent. On the first day when the commercial was put on, some fans went to the subway stations just to show support. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI-xUpryjR4

By the way, did you notice the pornography in San He Tang commercial? No kidding :-p


Dayi commercial at CCTV (a mainstream TV station). Very expensive... It's not as artistic as San He Tang's commercial, but is indeed perfect for TV. Dayi knows how to reach Chinese families. Most puerh consumers in China are middle age city workers, many of them are away from their parents. Dayi's commercial makes people cry...



http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjIzNzE4NTcy.html



Lipton. Not comparable to the other two, but probably it is the most expensive one. The man in the commercial is one of the most expensive actor in Asia. The theme here is, Lipton symbolizes Royal Life. At the end of the commercial, when he holds the paper cup, his line is, "This is my royal moment!" Funny, huh?!

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjExMDU2NjM2.html

6 comments:

Salsero said...

Great info. Thanks so much for posting these links.

Gingko said...

Hi Salsero, nice to see you and your little fish cup! :D

Jackie said...

Had a great time looking at these videos. Makes me want to see more! I'll browse around and see what else there is. So youku is China's version of youtube? Interesting..
I did notice the naughty but artistic scene..;)
Thanks very much Gingko, everyone should read your blog!

J.

Gingko said...

Jackie, thanks for your comments :D
Yeah youku is the Chinese version of youtube.

sparris said...

Interesting to see how advertising 'language' is similar around the globe, and yet retains regional character. The Dayi commercial made me too a little teary-eyed even though my parents are living very close to me, and we're nowhere near China. :)

Mind if I link to this post on my own (non-English language) tea blog..?

Gingko said...

Hi Sparris, yeah it's amazing how many similar feelings people share across cultures! Go ahead and link as you wish!