MOOD tea infuses more moments with positive-tea in new campaign via Dentsu Creative and Carat
Social enterprise MOOD tea has partnered with Carat and Dentsu Creative to deliver its latest probono campaign, securing over $9M in media placements.
The campaign is the latest to be backed by industry in a major way, with MOOD having now secured $30M in industry in media placements since its inception in 2021. Over this time the brand has seen over 100 companies from the advertising industry dropping their competitive barriers to come together and support youth mental health through MOOD, with everything from creative, to branding, research, probono inventory, PR and sampling.
This latest campaign, led by Dentsu Creative launches today, with an aim of infusing more moments with positive-tea.
The campaign is built on the insight that not all people will drink MOOD tea because it supports charity, some people will drink MOOD tea for their own reasons; because it helps their own mood, strengthens their own wellbeing, and makes them feel good.
The campaign is a reminder that MOOD tea isn’t a brew that just does great things, it’s a premium tea too.
Dentsu Creative chief creative officer, Avish Gordhan, says the creative is designed to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the idea that you don’t have to be a good person to buy the for-good tea: “This campaign is brought to life by a very unexpected spokesperson for MOOD tea – he’s a real jerk. A proper meanie. In each execution, we see this guy being incredibly unlikeable. And the message is clear – he doesn’t choose the tea because it does good in the world. He chooses it because it tastes good.”
This widespread campaign secured $9.3 million in placement value across TV, radio, print, cinema, OOH, digital media channels with the support of 37 generous media owners.
The campaign is supported by: ARN Radio, NOVA, ATN, Are Media, Broadsheet, Mamamia, News Corp, Pedestrian TV, Tonic Media Network, Yahoo, Scout Publishing, Val Morgan, The Guardian, Nine, Seven, Paramount, Foxtel, JCDecaux, oOh!media, QMS, Motio, GOA, Brandspace, Torch Media, Lumos, Cartology, Shopper, and Jolt.
General manager of MOOD tea Rachel Troy says it’s an exciting step forward for the brand: “In the current climate we wanted to focus on how we could add value to our consumers everyday life, bring them an unexpected smile and inject some humour into their day with some of our MOOD brand truths. We know people will gravitate towards a quality product, and the fact its linked to a purpose allows them to do something good for themselves, that also happens to do good.”
“We extend a huge thanks to all the agency, production and media partners who have come together to support us this year. Your support has allowed us to fund four programs to date, reaching more than 800 young people who now the education needed to proactively identify signs and symptoms of mental ill-health in themselves, and others.”
MOOD tea recently added Jolly Good English breakfast tea to its product catalogue, with a total of five teas now available for purchase directly from the MOOD tea website, and Woolworths stores nationally.
MOOD
CEO: Chris Freel
General Manager: Rachel Troy
Marketing Manager: Kate Holland
Agency: Dentsu Creative
Joint Chief Creative Officers: Mandie van der Merwe and Avish Gordhan
Strategy Partner: Tim Mottau
Strategist: Wil Koslowski
Creative Director: Chris Berents
Creative Director: Ant Hatton
Senior Account Director, PR: Tiffany Simon
Account Director: Josh Pelz
Account Executive: Emma Heazlett
National Production Lead: Roz Scrimshaw
Producer: Tom Pearce
Carat
Managing Director: Lauren Small
Chief Investment Officer: Craig Cooper
Group Investment Director – Melbourne: Steph O’Donnell
Casting: McGregors Casting
Production Company: Revolver
Director: Matt Devine
Producer: Alex Kember
DOP: Simon Walsh
Post-Production:
CGI: ALT VFX
Offline / Online: ARC EDIT
Editor: Phoebe Taylor
Audio: Rumble
Photography:
Photoplay / Nick Bowers
67 Comments
Hectic
Just damaging to another tea product.
There’s lots of tea products.
Why do a new one seemingly so strained (sorry but even with the pun but bragging about your alleged multi million backing might say something).
Good luck investors. Mine will not.
Is nice. It’s simple. It’s dark. Give me more.
I just saw the ad. Why? Just why? So unpleasant from start to finish. Im a 57 year old white male tertiary educated self funded in every aspect of life and drink tea.
But what the f was that?
So unpleasant let alone the dogshit.
David
I surely do hope you’re his
next door neighbour…with
the other side being a
vacant allotment…💩
Really funny idea. The screams at the end are kind of blood curdling tho. Mad hectic indeed
seems a bit…violent?
So good. So simps. I hope this becomes a long running campaign.
Is it just me or is this completely tone deaf? Sure he drinks it because it’s a good tea, not because money goes to charity for buying it. But running a tap to drown out the screaming noises of a neighbouring woman who is being abused somehow? In a context where violence against women is a serious and concerning social issue…. And worse, you ‘secured’ $9.3m to run this (which sounds like donated airtime). Tasteless Tea in my books.
Pretty sure he’s stealing the hot water from the person in the shower. Just because there’s a middle aged white guy on the screen doesn’t mean there’s a social justice issue at play. Might be time for you to broaden the scope of your social feed, you’re jumping at shadows mate.
Seriously? He’s running the tap so whoever is in the shower upstairs gets a hot/cold shower cus he’s not a good guy. I really hope you’re deliberately missing the point here…
Calm down.
Surely, you’re not serious!
Lovely spot, great tone. Well played.
Wow you took this to a dark place. Have you ever had a shower and someone in the same house runs the tap making said shower go freezing cold. Yeap, happens to me every morning (my kids do it as a gag). This is funny because it’s a d*ck move. Far from domestic violence.
So dark.
.. the sign of not so good campaign is having to read the explanation to get the spot. hoping the next few spots bring it to life better .. but give CSA you cant rely on paid to bring this story to life .. feels self indulgent creative execution to me (and that is ignoring the issues around screaming neighbors, women no less, feelings of domestic violence, a need for more frequency of spots, wasting clean water (..ok clutching straws now) but essentially just not a clear (and/or positive) message take out .. for such an important cause and big industry $$ support ..feels like a miss to me !?
Defs just you.
Just you
This is the first time that reading the comments was helpful – I thought the idea was that he had a woman held hostage. I was so confused why people were saying it was funny.
In a world of #metoo a woman screaming in fear and being ignored is tone deaf at best, evil at worst. This work is part of the problem and cannot be justified as being creative and therefore ok. Advertising must lift its ambitions. He’s not a “meanie” this is violent.
Not sure why people are confused by this idea. they probably aren’t used to living in a old house where the water goes ice cold in the shower if you turn on the tap at the sink. #privileged
All this ad does is signal to people that if you drink mood tea your probably an asshole… probably not the best use of the brands money to build that cultural association.
So sad to see that this ad – having disappeared from the screen for some time – has been changed to a man in the shower. Why?
I live outside Metro Australia and until recently I had to chop my own wood to heat the water in my own house – in order to have a hot shower. My house is old. So too are many houses in my community. People here cannot afford to renovate. Many people cannot afford to rent – especially with tree changers having discovered our community during COVID.
This ad was hilarious to people like me. It represented us and our experience. (For the record: I’m married, middle-aged and white.)
There are cultural shifts and ‘norms’ that emanate from the city that we are expected to adopt into our culture all the time. Yet for those living in comfortable metro surrounds, where is the reciprocal response?
No doubt there are many who live in older houses in outer city suburbs who also understand old-house living.
The removal of this ad and its subsequent relaunch (amended from a woman to a man in the shower) is another example to us of the privileged class having the lion’s share of power in our country.
By removing or sanitising our stories and experiences we are not heard. As lower socioeconomic and rural people we are rendered powerless by those with more opportunities than we could ever dream of having.
This ad WAS funny. It’s sad that a privileged class jumped to the wrong conclusion before considering a life outside their comfortable own. Saddest of all is that they have seen fit to erase our narrative to suit theirs.
Ugh yuck what a terrible ad! it’s moody, dark, the writing is clunky& the kitchen is just gross. Why is he in a tired gross-looking kitchen drinking a tea that is supposed to be celebrating all the hard work they do for mental health?
And IF the idea is that he’s stealing water from a woman in the shower, it is SERIOUSLY lost which means that consumers just won’t get it. You don’t even see a pack shot right until the end when most people will have stopped watching anyway.
Overall rating: 0 stars
I actually thought the sound was a howling dog, and somehow him putting the tap on made the pipes noisy and so the dog freaks out. ???
Cold shower makes much more sense!
Folks on here thinking it was some kind of Silence of the Lambs shit going down! Classic!
Be good if there were a few more of these, you could do loads
This site is great. The ads are funny. But the comments are funnier.
It’s cold water you absolute muppets. Happens in every old house in Australia.
No one is dying or being abused or being held hostage. FFS the ad industry in Australia is full of absolute dullards at the moment. We should be applauding even getting this through what seems to be a very brave client.
This is simple dark comedy at its best. Very clever and very funny. It’s going to get attention and work it’s arse off.
Love it – a chilling truth there Avish
Some pretty embarrassing creative coming out of the same tap.
Script was good. Direction took it to the wrong space.
Two clear camps here… those who get it and recognise good craft. And those who just want to make an issue when one clearly doesn’t exist.
As for @yuck… if you’re not already a client then go join an FMCG marketing team. They will love your ‘open on a pack shot, have talent holding the product, include brand colours’ formula to advertising. On your trip over you might want to go and look at the greatest advertising for the past 50years. You’ll find an engaging idea doesn’t need a heavy hand to have strong brand recall.
Nice to see a reasonably objective review ,instead of a judgemental
diatribe of invective.Obviously Schad-
enfreude is not in the lexicon of some of these critics.
I got the hot water gag straight away so I don’t make the domestic violence leap some have. But my gosh this is just a terrible spot. None of it leaves you feeling good about the product. Dialogue seems to gather too much at the beginning and you spend the next 10-15 seconds trying to comprehend it. Just a poor concept from the get go. Probably should have been killed before it became a script
Not as good as me but still nice. Wow, some of the comments on here show how desperate some people are to be woke.
No wonder comedy in Australian advertising is so rare. Half the industry screams bloody murder at the slightest hint of a joke.
I personally rate this spot. I know more about MOOD Tea than before and I had a chuckle along the way. Make more please.
Side note: Maybe we need an industry support group for people who forgot how to laugh?
So, they should have made the mean person a woman, so the person suffering a ‘micro aggression’ is a man?
But then, would making the mean person a woman open another pandora’s box?
Missed a trick here guys, should have made a slice of life montage (but with bright colours and cool funky people though, so it feels modern).
I find advertisement funny. I watch with wife. She now turns tap when I in shower. It makes me scream in C#. This morning I get her back by serving her gravy instead of tea. I laugh in B minor.
Borat like sister!!!
Great spot. Beautifully simple. Well done.
Many of you defenders have totally missed the point here. If the hot water/shower gag was clear the spot would have been a shit ton better. It wasn’t clear enough. I certainly thought it was someone being attacked or hurt in some way. I love ideas more than anyone but one that gets misinterpreted so badly is simply a bad piece of communication.
You made a tiny typo on your name.
Mate, that’s gold.
Love it. Well written. Well directed. Hope there are more.
Lol – don’t you make ads for the consumer first & then the client? not what the creatives think is a good idea (which they clearly pushed on the client due to low or no budgets). The overall branding is weak & judging by the rest of the comments on here, most people agree. Get out of agency land & get back to the real world.
Here’s another one with product front & centre. Maybe you should educate yourself on things that work instead of things that creatives like to do because they have big egos
https://campaignbrief.com/nandos-offers-aussies-an-escape-from-these-fiery-times-in-new-brand-campaign-via-sunday-gravy/
@@JustMe
Clients come to ‘agency land’ because they want ideas and creativity. Otherwise any muppet, including you, could write a 30sec script that just talks at the audience that no one will ever remember. And yes, good ads are written for the consumer. The same consumer that can follow and understand plot lines from Stranger Things, Succession or Peaky Blinders. Despite the dumbed-down thinking of Brand Managers the consumer can recognise and appreciate an entertaining idea. Think about that the next time you’re putting the Sony Bravia or John Lewis spot into your next powerpoint presentation.
@@@Just Me… Hey I like the Nando’s spot. It’s funny and it’s quirky. But I dare you to walk up to any random on the street and ask them to name it. The world is full of great campaigns that have the brand at the heart of their ads – Guinness, Skittles, Dove etc. But remember my original comment was about a pack shot being shown or not shown up front. There is a very big difference between having the brand central to your idea and just slapping a product shot on there to appease a research group. Tell me, how many times have you asked your agency to run a 30sec banner at the bottom of your ad with your logo on it?
Funny, simple and will be work its socks off. More of this please
Couple of stompy thuds from the ceiling would solve the ‘domestic violence’ note, although not really necessary.
“But I don’t drink it because I’m a good guy, I drink it because it’s a good tea”. That’s great. What a springboard. But yeah he could’ve been doing something dickish that’s less of… an attack to someone else’s mental health. He offsets the good behind the product. There are plenty of funny little things to choose from, more self-serving (and therefore relatable) than this – which looks just plain mean and hints at an awful relationship, DV or not.
Finally. Funny.
Funny and then really wasn’t. Escalating screams at the end just don’t feel right, yuck vibes especially for a mental health related brand??
Brilliant, an ad that made me actually think for a second and work out what was going on. And when I did, I loved it. Well done all involved. Thanks for resisting the urge to over explain it.
SHUT UP THIS IS A GREAT AD!!!
Is that a woman screaming? Is he keeping her captive? Is she being hit upstairs? The problem is, no one who matters gets it. All you ad freak types think you are so clever. It puts people off.
Is that a woman screaming? Is he keeping her captive? Is she being hit upstairs? Why is this funny? Those who don’t get it are every person in your target market, you oh-so-clever ad dicks.
I have a sneaking suspicion that as well as being Narnia, you’re at least 17 of these comments on here.
It’s funny. Hope it’s not just one execution though.
Also I tried the tea. It actually is pretty good.
Ok. I watched the ad and I saw a man turning in a tap to drown out a locked up woman screaming. I came to the comments because surely that’s not what happening. Correct – I see that wasn’t the intention. However if your spot is unclear enough that a bunch of people think it’s actually about torture, you’ve got an issue. Hardly think these reactions are the result of a moral panic, of wanting to see the worst in men, or virtue signaling. The film clearly isn’t doing a good job of executing a nice, simple idea.
Everything Yuck said and more.
No comedy timing in the direction.
Brand message totally lost.
Arsehole husband drinking this tea – but who’s buying it?
Really enjoyed this.
LOL! But what happened to The Monkeys, didn’t they build this brand?
I just saw a mood tea ad on TV with a smug, disgusting man throwing his dog’s shit over his neighbour’s fence. I wouldn’t drink this tea on principal. Disgusting behaviour!
I just find the contrast of talking about youth mental health and 2 versions of Mood Tea ads with the actor being ANTI-SOCIAL ie. wasting water whilst someone else is showering (+ or – domestic violence) OR tossing dog shit over the fence – neither clever or funny advertising. There is a long history of really clever and funny advertising in Australia eg Great Wall of China built to “keep the rabbits out” and many of the early Aldi ads – not so much now. But these ads for a product donating to a great cause but seemingly completely missing out on the connection at the very least of the self-centeredness of the actor’s portrayal means that the advertiser and possibly the Mood Tea company doesn’t get factors that contribute to poor mental health for all of us. Get an ad agency that uses humour by all means but don’t portraying not giving a stuff about other people. Why do you need to portray anti-social behaviour at the same time, anyway?? I will not drink Mood Tea BECAUSE of this ad – I’d rather donate to Kids Help or Beyond Blue directly.
Sorry about the use of “portraying” on the 3rd last line instead of just the word “portray”. I used predictive text and didn’t proof read before posting.
Can’t believe ANYONE in advertising thought this advert a good idea – def would NOT buy this tea BECAUSE of the advert – despite the company donating to Youth Mental Health
– perhaps MOOD tea is attempting to offset the damage they’ve probably done to overall mental health watching this bloody shite?!
(have succeeded in people talking about it though)
Schadenfreude ,old son
Oh,what a feeling!🤒