History

History

The Tetley Tea Folk are animated characters used to advertise Tetley Tea from 1973 to 2001, and from 2010 to present.

The copywriter John McGill Lewis of the advertising agency McCann Erickson  originated the Tetley Tea Folk in 1973 working with Art Director Peter Rigby who created the original Tea Folk characters before briefing Wyatt Cattaneo to animate them in 1973. The animated commercials were produced at Wyatt Cattaneo studios, where the Gaffer, Sidney, and supporting characters were animated by studio director Tony Cattaneo and animator Ramon Modiano. They also used live action too, using real tea bags as props these viedo shooting were done in  Morgan and Mount studios and later by Perkins StClaire. The series ran from its start until the early 1980s were animated by Ramon Modiano. The musical score for the "Tea Folk" song was composed by Ken Jones with the lyrics coming from their originator JM Lewis.

From the early 1980s, Tetley's advertising was written and produced by the advertising agency D'Arcy, while the Tea Folk illustrations and commercials were then animated by animator Richard Ollive.

In the early 1980s, Tetley's advertising was written and produced by the advertising agency D'Arcy, while the Tea Folk illustrations and commercials were then animated by animator Richard Ollive. When Tetley Tea stopped using the Tetley Tea Folk adverts in 2000 Richard Ollive still did the adverts for Tetley Tea austraila until 2005.  When Tetley tea made it's come back in 2010 Richard Ollive was asked to advertise them again and he still advertises them to present day.

If you would like to know more about Richard Ollive check out his website it is filled with fascinating information about his work with Tetley and other brands also he has a wonderful portfolio of his Tetley Tea Folk advertisement and even has a few of the TV adverts for Tetley.
http://www.richardolliveanimation.co.uk/richard-ollive-tv-work.html

All information was found on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetley_Tea_Folk