#RespectThePeach

Lipton Peach is arguably Lipton’s most iconic flavour. But in social culture the peach emoji currently does not mean Lipton Peach Ice Tea, in fact 93% of the time it’s used, it doesn’t even mean the fruit at all. So, in a bid to reclaim the emoji, the makers of iconic Lipton Peach Ice Tea and adam&eve\TBWA are enlisting the help of the OG himself: Ice-T.

Ice-T is calling on the internet to respect the peach in a pan-European #RespectThePeach drive for Lipton Peach Ice Tea and kicked off the campaign by dropping into gym and fitness communities on TikTok and Instagram where people routinely post about training their 🍑, and set the record straight: this fruit is not a glute.

This is followed by a launch of a video in which Ice-T officially calls on the internet to respect the peach, saying: “'Make sure the peach emoji is always used to represent the sweet peachy taste of the OG Lipton Peach Ice Tea. A butt is a butt and a peach is a peach - is a Lipton Ice Tea."

The campaign also sees the launch of the buttmoji - an anatomically correct butt shaped emoji. 

Producers and DJs have remixed Ice-T’s voice from the video into TikTok tracks designed to spread across social and into nightclubs. The campaign is also supported by contextual digital out of home advertising in hundreds of gyms.

As part of the campaign, Lipton Ice Tea is inviting everyone to share their own peach emoji misunderstanding stories under the hashtag #RespectThePeach, resulting in creators and users piling on to engage directly with Ice-T, who will respond in real time. The only long term solution was for us to launch the world’s first buttmoji. An anatomically correct butt shaped emoji, because there really is no shame in that. 

Everyone is encouraged to join in the campaign through shareable ads, stickers, GIFs, memes, and even a butt emoji that people can use instead of the peach. Participation is built into the campaign, with creator involvement, personalised responses, and live community moderation fuelling the conversation.

The campaign is running across TikTok, Instagram, and OOH across March and April. The initial launch has been in the Netherlands and Belgium, with more European markets taking up the campaign in the coming weeks.

April Adams-Redmond, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Pepsi Lipton, said: "When we discovered that 93% of peach emoji usage has nothing to do with the fruit, we instantly saw an opportunity for Lipton Peach Ice Tea. Partnering with Ice-T to #RespectThePeach is a relevant, playful intervention that speaks to how people actually communicate online. This campaign is about Lipton showing up where conversations are happening, with a welcome dose of irreverent humour - all while sipping on some delicious Ice Tea.”

Mark Shanley, Executive Creative Director, adam&eve\TBWA, added: “It turns out 93% of social posts are using the peach emoji wrong. That’s a lot of ass related content. So we needed a genuine authentic expert in the subject. That’s why we hired Ice-T (the rapper turned actor) to help Lipton Ice Tea (the refreshing soft drink) to teach a lesson in respecting the peach. This feels like the sort of insight led, social first, butt joke that the world needs right now and we have had a lot of fun making it.”