Yorkshire tea: where adverts are done proper
The Background
I’ll have to begin by declaring an interest.
I come from Leeds in the heart of West Yorkshire. Yorkshire folk are a proud people, so much so, there’s even a campaign to secede from the United Kingdom and declare Yorkshire an independent nation. It may sound far-fetched, but we’ll see how Brexit goes…
This TV campaign by Lucky Generals is the continuation of its 2017 series which featured Michael Parkinson, The Kaiser Chiefs and the Brownlee Brothers.
What They Did
Taking us ‘behind the scenes’ at Yorkshire Tea’s Knaresborough factory, the campaign features a host of famous Yorkshire personalities, each bringing their own particular skills to their new salt-of-the-earth jobs on the factory floor.
It’s refreshing to see a campaign that exists simply as a couple of 30-second commercials.
They may well have gone out in cinemas and even across social (for all I know) but they are clearly made for purpose as instantly get-able, short comic sketches that deliver a quick hit of entertainment and tap into a funny but authentic archetype.
The Review
I get it. It’s from Yorkshire.
You know, like him from Game o’Thrones, the bloke who says “bastard” a lot, and that magician fella from Bra’ford (for the uninitiated, that’s a reet Yorkshire glottal stop). What tea? Yorkshire tea. Cracking.
The campaign is also a rare example of a long-running idea that gets better with time.
I only came across the earlier episodes through the recent Sean Bean/Dynamo instalments, and I have to say, although they just about worked, they ultimately relied on a lot of audience knowledge about their stars who weren’t really strong enough examples of who we imagine when we think “Yorkshire”.
The Kaiser Chiefs are famous, I’m not sure it’s for being from Leeds.
And those running guys from the Olympics, where are they from again?
So kudos to all involved for committing to a great idea and strong creative and seeing it through until they got a cast that could measure up to the idea.
With an idea like that there’s only one name that will do.
Listen ‘ere, as far as we’re concerned, Sean Bean IS Yorkshire.
In Hindsight
Both films have finely tuned scripts and pitch perfect performances from the supporting cast, and Dynamo nicely underplays it.
But let’s be honest, dodgy green screen aside, it’s all about Sharpe, sorry, Sean.
With a performance like that, for a moment I genuinely believed that he was doing this advert for Yorkshire rather than the massive pay cheque.
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