Tea is a staple item in every household in Kuwait with the biggest brands accounting for about 50% marketshare while the rest are smaller scale regional or local operations and family run businesses. Al Munayes tea, a 60 year local heritage brand known for its loose-leaf Cylon tea, had just launched a new product set to compete in the tea bag category. It had been 9 months and it just was not selling. The primary problem being unrecognizable new branding of the package, on shelves Al Munayes loose-leaf tea was known to clear out! They needed an idea and had a very limited budget. The objective was to relaunch the product and establish themselves as a competitive voice within the premium tea bag category in Kuwait.

Bu Salem, a fictitious candidate running for office for a nonexistent district, is shown in his first parliamentary campaign film which showcases his credentials and what he is all about.

Throughout the film, Bu Salem chooses to drink his tea, calmly, as the copy appears on screen without saying a single word.

With only 14 days till voting day, we leaked photoshopped images of Bu Salem on well-known outdoor media outlets and newspapers without revealing the product on Whatsapp to the right contacts and group chats.

Within the first 6 hours the images went viral and were shared across multiple devices and social media platforms with the trending question of, “Who is Bu Salem?”

The next day, a video was leaked showcasing Bu Salem for 1 minute, sitting silently on a chair and sipping on an cup of tea with his credentials appearing on screen for people to read.

One day after the video leak which also went viral a series of promoted ads on twitter, instagram, youtube and news applications launched with the same video which included the revealing of the brand of tea.