A few national advertising spots caught our eye this year. As tea consumption in the US has become more commonplace, perhaps promoting one’s brand as a source for the stuff makes the expense worthwhile.

The early part of the tea year offered Unilever’s Lipton brand commercial “Be More Tea” which featured the Muppets. It showed people –er, Muppets– breaking away from the mundane and stressful (represented by Animal) by Kermit having a cup of tea as the solution to bustling city mayhem. Warm and cute, seeing the Muppets encourage tea consumption is a welcome lifestyle message.

Be More Tea – Lipton and the Muppets

In late summer, Starbucks offered a refreshing, youthful, semi-artful spot promoting their Teavana Shake Up Your Iced Tea. The ‘shaken’ aspect adds a bit of flair to an already refreshing and well-known beverage. Featuring their baristas flipping iced tea shakers created an inviting energy clearly meant to appeal to younger consumers.

Starbucks – Teavana Shake Up Your Iced Tea

The holiday season kicked off with a surprise visit with the lovely Cindi Bigleow promoting Bigelow’s holiday teas. Cindi offered the simple suggestion to enjoy tea and family during the most hectic time of the year, also beautifully encouraging tea as a lifestyle and as a comfort counterpoint to holiday stress.

While each of these has their own flavor and soft branding approach, they certainly convey tea’s appeal: comforting, refreshing and soothing – all features of a lifestyle most people are eager to embrace. These spots should go far to loop in new tea drinkers to what we already love about tea and create a larger customer base for us all. Be more tea? You betcha!