Tea Board of India : Absolute Crap campaign

Brand : Tea
Company : Tea Board of India
Agency: O&M
Brand Count : 96

If you want to see how government money can be wasted, look no further, it is there in your idiot box in the form of the Tea Board of India's campaign to increase the popularity of tea. The domestic consumption of tea is largest in India to the tune of 700 mn Kg. But the Board feels that there is still immense potential left for this commodity. Another problem anticipated by the board is that the younger generation is moving away from this drink to carbonated drinks. More importantly Coffee is considered " Cool" by the next gen , thanks to marketing efforts by Branded Coffee outlets like Barista, Coffee Beans etc.

So Tea Board wants to replicate the success of campaigns like Operation Flood and National Egg Coordination committee. The budget was fixed and the task entrusted to the most creative agency in the country ( rather world) , O&M.

The Outcome was a damn Squibb. The directionless campaign is a sheer waste of money and in any angle you look at it, the campaign will be given the award of the " Hopeless campaign of the year".

The idea behind the campaign is to promote the image of tea drinkers as being " Cool " to appeal to the younger generation. So the ad " dreadfully" tries to compare tea drinkers and " definitely not a tea drinker" and exhorts that tea drinkers are " cool". The baseline of the campaign says " Chai Piyo, mast Jiyo" has no connection with the message of the ad.

The apathy of O&M in executing the idea is evident may be because they feel that anything goes for a " Government board". But the agency has virtually damaged its reputation ( atleast in my mind) as a " serious creative agency". A demanding client will squeeze the creativity out of any damn agency, but it takes a "serious creative agency" to deliver creative output even for a small client.