PG Tips

PG tips

Current PG tips packaging
Product type	Tea
Owner	Unilever
Introduced	1930

PG tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom, manufactured by Unilever UK, which claims Britons drink 35 million cups of PG tips a day.

Brand name

In the 1930s Arthur Brooke launched PG Tips in the UK tea market under the name of Pre-Gest-Tee, suggesting that the tea could be drunk before food was digested (pre-digestive). Grocers quickly abbreviated it to PG.

After the Second World War, labelling regulations ruled out describing tea as aiding digestion—a property previously attributed to tea—and by 1950/1 the PG name was officially adopted. The company added "Tips" referring to the fact that only the tips (the top two leaves and bud) of the tea plants are used in the blend.

Products

PG tips is available as loose tea, tea bags, and in vending formats. A "Special Blend" tea, which is the same as the tea blended for the brand's 75th anniversary, is available in tea bag form only.

The tea used in PG tips is imported in bulk as single estate teas from around the world and blended in precise proportions set by the tea tasters to make blend 777, which can contain between 12 and 35 single estate teas at any one time (depending on season, etc.) at the Trafford Park factory in Manchester.

PG Tags, tea bags with a string, were launched in 1985, and pyramid-shaped (tetrahedron) tea bags in 1996 (PG Tips Pyramid ® Bags is a registered trademark). The pyramid-shaped bag was specifically designed to help the tea leaves move more freely, as loose tea moves in a teapot, and create a better infusion. The Brooke Bond name has now been dropped from all packaging, focusing on the PG tips brand name, and the international Lipton brand.

In Scotland, Unilever sell a specially developed blend of PG. It is called Scottish Blend.

In the Republic of Ireland, Unilever sells tea under the Lyons brand.

PG tips, Scottish Blend and Lyons teas are exported by Unilever UK Export, based in Unilever UK's Head Office Leatherhead, through a worldwide network of food distributors.

Advertising

Unlike the blended teas many companies were producing, Arthur’s teas were pure, high-quality teas from India and China. Arthur realized the importance of advertising early on, introducing the slogan, "Good tea unites good company, exhilarates the spirits, banishes restraint from conversation and promotes the happiest purposes of social intercourse."

Since 1956, in the longest running advertising campaign for any brand, PG tips often advertised using chimpanzees dressed as humans and drinking tea: the "Tipps family".

One of these adverts, called "Mr. Shifter" holds the world record for the advert shown most times on British Television.

A whole range of figurine chimps were made as collector's editions for PG tips, and some are very rare. All the chimps in the adverts were featured (including Kevin Tipps and Mr. Shifter).

This campaign was replaced in the late 1990's-[c.2000], with a house sharing group of claymation birds called the T-Birds, animated by Aardman, the company behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run. In Ireland these commercials were still airing in late 2006, though advertising Lyons Tea (another Unilever brand). This led to PG tips becoming a major partner with Wallace and Gromit's first film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, launched in October 2005. PG offered "Gromit" mugs on pack in the supermarket. According to The Grocer magazine, Unilever reported that during this "Gromit" mug promotion, PG tips sales increased 600 percent. Wallace and Gromit also appeared in an advert with Lady Tottington (another character from the film) around the same time.

PG tips also produced a long running series of trade cards as give-aways. These cards ceased production in 1999 after a survey of customers showed that they were not contributing to developing the business.

In 2005, PG tips celebrated its 75th anniversary with special packs, including a limited edition Golden pack and a one-off Diamond tea bag. The Diamond tea bag cost £7,500 and was made by Boodles jewelers and used Makaibari Silver Tips (Imperial).

In 2007, PG tips have reunited Johnny Vegas and the popular ITV Digital Monkey character puppeteered by Nigel Plaskitt and Susan Beattie and voiced by Ben Miller, following a holiday TV special about famously bad decisions (ITV Digital's launch) where they featured briefly. Johnny's notably cleaner and soberer than he often plays, and the Monkey character pointedly explains he's not a chimpanzee, he's a monkey, a nod to PG tips' chimpanzee family. In the first advert shown during Coronation Street on 8 January 2007, Monkey returns drenched and dishevelled after 5 years away because of the demise of ITV Digital and drops by unannounced at the house of Johnny Vegas' character "Al". After a short catch-up conversation, a boil wash and a cup of PG tips, Al says Monkey can stay with him again even though he' s rented the big room to Carol Decker from the popular British 1980s band T'Pau. On the official website, Monkey is wearing a T-shirt saying "Mr Shifter?", a reference to the "Tipps family" advert.

The second Monkey advert was first seen before Coronation Street on 15 January 2007 at around 8.30pm. It shows Monkey explaining to Al that PG tips is a natural blend of tea leaves, water and nothing else. But Al keeps discovering more things in his cup (milk, 5 sugars, the remains of a macaroon and a red plastic seahorse) leading Monkey to frustratingly declare, 'Oh why do I bother?!'

The third Monkey advert was first aired on 22 January 2007 during GMTV. It shows Monkey and Al dressed in Home Guard uniforms reminiscent of the classic British TV comedy Dad's Army. Monkey explains that at 15.00 hours they will drink a cup of PG tips with naturally occurring theanine to help Al build a flat packed chest of drawers. Al completes the task but Monkey ends up with his head in the bottom drawer and his legs upside down in the middle drawer leading Monkey to quote "Stupid boy", a reference to Private Pike.

The fourth Monkey advert was first aired on 29 January 2007 during GMTV. It shows Monkey and Al dressed as carnival folk. Monkey is wearing a ballerina's tutu and is tied to a rotating wheel while Al throws teaspoons, instead of the expected knives, at the rotating Monkey who pleads with Al to "stop this madness". Al tells Monkey not to fear because he's in the zone because of the naturally occurring theanine in PG tips. Once Al runs out of spoons, he reaches for other kitchen tools (egg whisk, spatula, etc.) and asks Monkey if he'd prefer a blindfold. Monkey agrees but then Al wears the blindfold instead leading Monkey to cry "No idiot, for me. Put the blindfold on me!" The now blindfolded Al says "Who says that?" and walks into the kitchen table.

The fifth monkey advert was first aired on 5 February 2007. It advertises a free Monkey in special packs of PG Tips.

More adverts were screened between March-November 2008, including Monkey's disgraceful Christmas message.

On 25 December 2008 another advert was released, with Al and monkey making tea in tribute to the Morecambe and Wise 'Breakfast Sketch'. This involved the pair making tea to the same music as used in the Sketch.

The next advert was shown in February 2009, when Monkey proves to Al about pyramid tea bags and that September another advert was shown when Al remembered the day he discovered pyramid tea bags. The most recent PG Tips advert was shown on 3 November 2009 when Monkey shouts out at a match.

Another advert shows Monkey and Al under the kitchen table, hiding from a Mexican-looking man with several sacks of tea leaves. Monkey asks Al why he ordered tea directly from Mexicans, when PG Tips already supports Rainforest Alliance for sustainability. Monkey then peeks out, looks horrified, and asks Al how many tea bags he had bought. Al says "The usual, 80 bags.", whereas the Mexican understood "bags" as "sacks", bringing 80 sacks of tea leaves. Al then foolishly shouts "We are not here!" to deter the Mexican, the Mexican obviously finds them, and the ad closes with Monkey nervously saying "Buenos dias, Senoridas?".

The latest advert is a spoof of the "deli scene" from the movie When Harry Met Sally; in the advert Monkey describes the taste of PG Tips by saying "Oh Yes" repeatedly like in the movie, finishing with a woman in the table nearby asking the waiter "I'll have whatever he's having". The ad ends with the tagline "How Would you Describe the Taste?". It was first shown on 3 February 2010.

PG tips and sustainability

In May 2007, Unilever became the first company to commit to sourcing all its tea in sustainable manner. To that extent, the company asked the Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental NGO to start certifying tea estates in East Africa.

As of February 2008, PG tips packs have been carrying a seal saying 'At least 50% of this tea comes from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms'. The company states that by 2010, all its tea will be Rainforest-Alliance-certified tea. An advertising campaign supporting the initiative was launched at the same time, including two new TV ads with Monkey and Al. At the same time, Monkey starred in a 10 minute documentary-style advertisement called 'A Tale of Two Continents' which was only shown in cinemas and online.

See also

• Tetley, PG tips' main competitor
• Lipton, another brand of tea also owned/made by the same company (Unilever) as PG tips.
• Typhoo tea, UK's third leading brand.

Slogans

• "How would you describe the taste?" (Al and Monkey) (Current Advert)
• "Do your bit, put the kettle on" (Al and Monkey)
• "We All Need a PG Moment" (used during the T-Birds era)
• "There's no other tea to beat PG" (later chimp ads)
• "It's the taste." ('spoken' by a chimp)
• "Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?" MR SHIFTER: You hum it son, I'll play it!
• "Avez-vous un cuppa?" (Tour De France)
• "It's the Tea you can really Taste" (Earlier chimp ads)

External links

• Official PG tips website
• Official PG tips Monkey merchandise e-shop
• PG TIPS CARD info
• Direct link to 2007 Monkey adverts with Johnny Vegas
• Vote for your favourite Monkey & Al advert at chartnation.com
• Unilever Brand Website
• Ranforest Alliance website
• Selection of PG tips chimpanzee ads