Iconic Ads: Tata Tea – Jaago Re

In 2007, Jaago Re was initiated by Tata Tea. It was targeted at the youth. Research showed that they drank tea a lot and so Tata Tea wanted to ‘vibe’ with them (coffee was known as the hip product).

The objective was also to have a unified message for the four brands under the Tata Tea umbrella — Tata Tea Premium, Tata Tea Agni, Tata Tea Gold and Tata Tea Life. This was around the time when Tata Tea had overtaken Unilever in sales volumes.

The phrase metaphorically talked about social awakening and meant ‘wake up’ (with a cup of tea). Wake up to the reality happening all around in society and be aware of it as a responsible Indian citizen.

The youth were asked to stand up against social apathy. It also wanted to increase civic consciousness and political awareness. The campaign has raised various issues at different periods – encourage new voters, corruption, bring positive stories to the forefront, womens’ rights etc.

Lintas was driving this. Amer Jaleel, Balki (who coined the phrase) among others were the creative persons behind this. Ironically, the campaign was thought of in a coffee shop! Amit Sharma shot the first campaign wherein an unknown Pankaj Tripathy was featured. Along the way, not so famous actors like Swara Bhaskar, Md Zeeshan Ayub, etc. have been given the limelight.

Jaago Re!