Lipton Ice Tea and Ice-T Team Up to Right a Refreshing Wrong

Many consumers have experienced ordering an iced tea at a café, expecting the familiar taste of Lipton Ice Tea, only to be served something entirely different. To address this common mix-up, the brand has partnered with iconic rapper and actor Ice-T to introduce 'Ice Tea Insurance' in the Netherlands and Belgium. The light hearted initiative is designed to ensure iced tea drinkers receive the original they expect.

The campaign is built on a clear insight: a recent YouGov study shows that 44% of café guests say they’ve been served something different than what they expected. In the case of iced tea, that confusion is even more pronounced: 81% of frequent iced tea drinkers assume they’ll be served Lipton Ice Tea when ordering.

“When you order an iced tea at a bar or restaurant, you don’t always get a Lipton Ice Tea, which can sometimes lead to disappointment,” said Manon Lanckneus, senior brand manager of Lipton Ice Tea Benelux. “With this campaign, we’re backing our fans, and giving the hospitality world a little nudge that when people say ‘iced tea,’ they often mean us.”

​TBWA\NEBOKO turned this behavioural friction into a culturally resonant platform, reinforcing Lipton Ice Tea’s established position as the original. The fictional ‘insurance’ gives consumers a playful way to turn their disappointment into a refreshing win, and gently nudges the hospitality industry to serve what’s actually expected.

The campaign is fronted by Ice-T, and it’s not just because his name echoes the drink. He rose to fame as the “Original Gangster” with his 1991 album and became a cultural icon across both music and film. With a legacy rooted in originality, Ice-T is now teaming up with Lipton Ice Tea, the brand that introduced iced tea to millions, to remind people that there is only one original.

“We came up with Ice Tea Insurance for anyone who didn’t get the original Lipton Ice Tea,” said Darre van Dijk, chief creative officer at TBWA\NEBOKO. “And who better to deliver that message than the other original Ice-T himself? We pitched it to him, he loved it instantly, and soon we found ourselves on set in the Netherlands with the real ‘OG’.”

This summer, the campaign will roll out across OLV, social media, OOH, influencers, hospitality venues, and other media channels in the Netherlands and Belgium. Guests in those countries who are served a non-Lipton iced tea on a terrace can visit liptoniceteainsurance.com to see how they can claim a complimentary Lipton Ice Tea as compensation.