According to Victorian author John Davis, writing in 1840, tea was the first commodity ever to be advertised in a London newspaper, the Mercurius Politicus, in 1658.

It was Glasgow tea entrepreneur Thomas Lipton, often thought to be the father of modern advertising, who originally coined the slogan "Accept No Substitute". Lipton was one of the pioneers of aggressive advertising, frequently testing the boundaries of what was legally permissible with such initiatives as circus-style parades through the streets, and giant cheeses in which gold sovereigns were hidden, Christmas pudding fashion.

Advertising often drew on the social ritual of serving tea, sometimes in incongruous or deliberately cute contexts. An early 20th-century poster illustration of a little girl giving a tea party for her dolls was captioned, "Mummy buys her tea at Sainsbury's".

Otherwise, tea's role as the eternal comforter was stressed. An 1890 ad for the long-defunct Mazawattee brand showed the legendary John Bull figure, pot in one hand, cup and saucer in the other, ministering to an imperial Army officer, above the slogan, "A friend in need".

Memorable slogans over the years, apart from the classic PG Tips "Avez-vous un cuppa?" have included shameless appeals to nostalgia, such as Yorkshire Tea's "Like tea used to be", or have emphasised the reviving tonic aspect of tea "Get back your oo with Typhoo".

While tea advertising these days still relies on notions of homeliness and comfort, there is a move towards glamour too. Tetley's has used British-born Sex And The City actress Kim Cattrall in a risque campaign that launched in autumn 2004.

Monkey business

From 1957 until 2002, Brooke Bond PG Tips used chimpanzees dressed as people to advertise its tea on television. The PG Tips chimps are now in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest running advertising campaign ever.

The very first advert was "Stately Home", made in black and white. Its setting was an upper-class tea party, where several of the guests were shown to have appalling manners. It was narrated by Peter Sellers, beginning a tradition of using leading comic stars for the ads. Later voices were provided by Arthur Lowe, Stanley Baxter, Irene Handl, Kenneth Connor and Kenneth Williams.

Two of the most fondly remembered ads were made in 1971. In "Tour de France", Cyril the Cyclist, voiced by Stanley Baxter, asks an adoring French female fan, "Avez-vouz un cuppa?" Delighted to be served with a cup of PG Tips, he asks her, "Can you ride tandem?"

The second, "Mr Shifter", was so popular that it was broadcast more than 1,000 times, gaining the record for the ad shown most times on British television. It features two chimps in the removal business, a father and son, who are trying to carry a piano down a tricky flight of stairs. After they drop it with a crash, the son says, "Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?" Dad replies, "You hum it son, I'll play it!"

According to Molly Badham, founder of Twycross Zoo in Warwickshire, where the chimps lived, they loved making the PG Tips adverts. Interviewed by the BBC in 2003, she remembered, "They were very proud of their clothes... I remember one wanted to wear the shoes it had all the time. Another could pour tea without spilling it. And they loved riding bicycles."

A couple of the chimps, now retired, still live at the zoo. They have been succeeded by an animated family of birds by Aardman Animations, which produces the Wallace & Gromit films.