Tetley Green Tea: A Demarcation of the Dull from the Divine.

Excite your Senses with Tetley & Cirque du Soleil

Do you know what I love about this commercial? The promise of something extraordinary wrapped in the ordinary. The exotic contained in the mundane. The sheer genius of it is awe-inspiring. Now, you might say, it’s just a commercial. A silly and homely one that neither entices nor excites. But, oh ye reader, I would advise that this commercial does precisely both: entice and excite. But the subtlety with which it does it is striking.

How to remove the cloak of subtlety that conspires to cloak your subconscious?

First of all, notice the colours of the commercial, as the camera first draws you in. The colours and their crispness. These are rather subdued colours one may argue. The lady’s teal blue sweater. Her dark brown hair. The greenery visible from the window—no vibrant flowers nor buzzing bees and not a single brilliant hued bird (or any bird at all for that matter). The curtains themselves, mostly dark greys, with one or two somewhat green in the diffused light. The only thing that stands out really are the flowers in the vase. A stoic pink. Not soft nor stark, but stoic. And then of course, at the centre of it all, barely visible, it seems, against its surroundings, the can of Tetley tea, centered and illuminated (almost) by a beam of light.

And then all that white.

In order to comprehend the genius of the sterile white surrounded by the above stated colours, it is important to realize the purpose of the commercial. To sell not just Tetley Tea, but Tetley Green Tea. Green tea is supposed to be the healthier version of its sister tea (the regular variety). It is generally taken to be a dull and dreary beverage all in all. You have to be relatively health-conscious, suffering from insomnia, high-strung and/or mourning to really require green tea. Ah, but not according to this commercial you see. Not that green tea is scandalous or anything, no sir. It is positively cleansing. Hence, all the white. But not a bland white, note. A pearly white. A luminescent white. Not boring, sir. But bordering on the brilliant. With vivacious curvatures (the teapot), gleaming reflections (the tabletop) and simple and sweet straight lines (the window beam). All of which convey a kind of depth–a demarcation of the dull from the divine.

Now for the colours themselves, which colour this canvas of pearly white. The teal blue, the dark brown, the soft greens, the greys, and the pink. With which chord in your psyche do these colours resonate? What do you envision when these colours are laid out for your visual consumption? What memory is evoked? What saturates your entire being when you are submerged in this colour coordination? Think it through. What do you see? More importantly, what do you feel?
Rooted. You feel rooted. For these colours convey deep earthy tones. They secure you to the earth in an effort not to bind you but to give you a sense of being rooted. To give you a sense of significance in the deeply humble, a sense akin to the significance of soil—at the heart of all our subsistence and yet a sense to which us city dwellers rarely subscribe. But which makes this commercial all the more relevant. All the more powerful in its approach. Experience all that is natural in the clean, cleansed environment of your home. Bring the purity and clarity of the natural world right into your midst (rather than the other way around).

The teal blue sweater: A sense of the deep, deep blue sea that resonates with the very centre of your being. The calm centre of a churning sea. (Green tea is calming).

The dark brown hair. Not a muted, mousey brown. Not an exuberant, brilliant brown. But a deep, dark brown. Evocative of soil and earth. (Green tea is natural).

The stoic pink flowers. Not so soft in colour so as to be flimsy, so as to convey a lack of depth in the product being sold. But not so strong so as to overpower the product itself. A precise coloration that like the product being sold, demonstrates a serene and sturdy strength. (Green tea is full-bodied in flavour).

And now for the natural backdrop. The greenery beyond the window. Is it a vibrant green? Hardly. But it is not a flat green either. It is more so a diffused green. Not so strong so as to enable nature to overpower us, but not so flat so as to defy the power of nature. A diffused green. A sure and robust presence but not an overbearing one. (A natural beverage suffused with subtle but pronounced flavour).

And the curtains. I love the curtains. See how the curtains are practically luminescent. Though not all of them are so. Luminescence requires a deeper, slightly darker shade to draw it out. Not dark, not pitch because then the sensation will be too stark. It will not leave you comforted but disturbed. No the coloration contrast must be striking enough to draw the eye, but soft enough not to cause it to shy away. (A tight balance of flavour).

The clear mug showcasing its innards (clarity complemented by a smooth and full richness).

Reading too much into it, you say? Hardly. Have a look at the commercial not just as a pastime, but why it strikes you so—look deeper and you will discover the depth it conveys and within which it cloaks the product it aims to sell.
But I’m not done just yet.

Notice the crispness of the commercial. Not just of the colours, but also of the contours. The strong jaw line. The perfect angle of the woman’s arm. Her movements emphasizing the smooth, well-defined contours thereof. The perfect straight lines of the window backdrop and the curtains. The perfect vertical drop of the curtains, the perfect folds therein.
The globe-like formation of the tea pot. The combined strength of straight and curved lines found in the vase. The well rounded mug, but with perfectly visible, bold outlines. Through and through. All such perfect contours. Defined and configured with a sharp strength, purpose and clarity. All to offset the ill-defined fluid formation of a liquid product. Tea is a fluid and so, lacks contours and configurations apart from the items within which it is contained. But notice, how something as indefinite in shape and form is given precisely that by the backdrop against which it is showcased. Shape and depth all granted by orchestration to the central figure in this show. The Tetley Tea case centre stage, illumined by a beam of light falling just in front of it. Evoking once again, the subtle quality of its flavour and depth. Its well-rounded perfection just a grace upon the tongue, not an assault thereon.

The rest of the commercial is hardly dark. But the light therein is of a muted quality. This muted quality is hardly noticeable. In fact, not noticeable at all. Until of course, you notice that central beam of light. Almost like a revelatory respite in a sea of the mundane. (All of which acquires a mundane flavour in relation to that beam of light). A blessing from on-high. A refreshing splash of the divine in the day to day of a limited world. Tetley tea as the harbinger of the extraordinaire:

Cirque du Soleil. Tickets to, to be precise. And the steam which is so well associated with a cup of tea. The steam which symbolizes hearth and home. And in varying degrees happiness and/or a humbug of an over-comfortable, unexciting lifestyle—but in this case, one released from its burden thereof. The steam becomes the catalyst that spurs the ordinary into the extraordinary, for which the stage was set by a Tetley Green tea canister almost caught in a beam of light. Acrobats and tightrope walkers, male and female bodily shapes, natural and earthy, in full-fledged costumes designed to delight. The promise of travel, like smoke from fire to fire. London, France, Osaka—and each acrobat not a free faller, rather acrobatics displayed upon an arena that demonstrates gravity so as to demonstrate its defiance. A rope, a hoop, a tightrope walk. Visions of faraway lands through a smokescreen just waiting to be pierced. A veil lifted and the prize revealed:

All with the purchase of Tetley Green Tea. Pristine and pure. Green tea, laced with grandeur.
Excite Your Senses. Indeed.