How Cheeky Monkeys Swayed The British Tea Drinking Population

(A scene from PG Tips advert "Mister Shifter" - 1971. Image taken from Google)

Last night I watched a documentary entitled The Secret Of The Tea Chimps. It was fascinating.

For readers that may not be familiar with the tea chimps here is a very potted history.

In the late 1950's, Brooke Bond who produced PG Tips tea in Britain came up with a gem of a advertising campaign. Building a campaign on the success of the popular Chimps Tea Party that zoo's often featured, in which chimps ate cake and drunk tea in front of delighted zoo visitors, Brooke Bond decided to use chimps in their advertising.

However, in the mind 1960's audiences were tiring of adverts of chimp's tea parties, so they decided to anthropomorphise the beloved chimps and put them into situations that were normal to us human beings. So, for instance, there were chimps who became removal men, who cycled in the Tour de France and who even played James Bond. They were even portrayed as normal families with two rowdy teenagers in toe.

(Image from Google)

The advertising became so popular that PG Tips saw a massive rise in the sales of their tea. They outsold Tetley and Twinings and pretty much any other brand that was sold on Britain's shelves at the time.

The PG Tips chimps opened supermarkets, made personal appearances, and went through many hours of training to continue their roles as the tea chimps. They were dressed in specially made outfits and became major celebrities in the 1960's. There was no doubt that the chimps made PG Tips the nation's favourite brand.

However, by the 1970's, when Britain was establishing different attitudes towards using animals for entertainment,  Brooke Bond  ceased using the monkey's in their advertisements. Out of  work, the chimps helped establish the success of Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire.

This is when things got really interesting.

As soon as the tea chimps were unceremoniously dumped PG Tips noted a dramatic loss of sales. And it was virtually overnight, too. For eighteen months PG Tips lost it's crown and where it once sat as top selling tea in the UK, it dropped down several places in the list. Before long the chimps were re-established.

The chimps, who were called The Tipps family remained in place till 2002 when they were once again dropped and have now been replaced by a puppet monkey, called, well, Monkey.

 (PG Tip's current Monkey. Image from Google).

What was totally amazing about the story, for me as a tea lover, was how those chimps really swayed the British tea buying public for over thirty years. It showed how a really strong and popular advertising campaign could latch onto people's imagination and keep hold of their hearts, too. 

This does, however, cost a huge amount of money - funds which are unavailable to smaller tea companies - and a lot of hard work to keep the advertising interesting.

But underneath the smiling chimps and the excited public there did lie a much darker question. Why did tea sales drop significantly after the advertising was dropped? What was it about the tea that meant its once loyal customer base abandoned them and went to other brands?

Sadly, I cannot answer. But it certainly does reaffirm to me how susceptible we are by marketing. Whether it be beautiful packaging or successful television campaigns. And that for me is slightly frightening because does it mean people settle for less in quality even if the outside looks nice and pretty.

The current Monkey used for advertising PG Tips - which is now owned by Unilever - is also successful but not quite to the degree of the Tipps family. There is plenty of Monkey merchandise available and each Christmas a new Monkey teddy can be purchased with your tea in special edition boxes.

But as much as I enjoy a good marketing campaign or pretty packaging I have to say my heart always belongs to the actual quality of the tea. And if it comes in plain packaging that doesn't make a bit of difference to how much I enjoy the tea.

So, I guess, I'm saying is don't be fooled by the exterior packaging and TV adverts. It's what is on in the inside that really counts.