Lipton emphasises 'golden ratio' of milk tea with musical analogy

The objective of the 'golden ratio' campaign is to build up Lipton’s credentials in order to differentiate the brand in the milk tea category from main local competitors Xiang Piao Piao and You Le Mei.

It presents Lipton's products in a simple but endearing way, and features Takeshi Kaneshiro, Lipton’s ambassador for the last two years. The demonstration of Lipton product ingredients is cleverly weaved with Kaneshiro's musical skills (Though famous now as an actor, Kaneshiro started his entertainment career as a musician).

Visuals in the campaign are meant to showcase the 'perfect combination' of musical notes, as an analogy to the 'golden ratio' of ingredients in a cup of milk tea. As Kaneshiro plays the guitar and piano, tea and milk swirl together alongside the movement of the instruments.

That entailed building a prop that was actually a container attached to the back of the guitar, involved countless testing of tea splashing out for the visual.

Margaret Wu, the director-in-charge of the campaign at DDB China, said her team took the most classic and basic approach in food advertising. "In order to get the Lipton product story out in an emotional way, the products have to look delicious and real", Wu said, adding that most other food demonstration shots are done quite artificially with computer graphics and thus lack authenticity.

“The entire ad is beautiful. In our business, authenticity is critical. DDB has done a superb job in raising the bar. Have you ever seen a product demonstration this perfect?” Jane Huang, director of Lipton BD China, commented.

Client: Lipton China
Agency: DDB Shanghai
Chief Creative Officer: Michael Dee
Producer: George Ooi
Director-In-Charge: Margaret Wu
Production House: China Film
Director: Masami Kamiyama