In 2015, the media became obsessed with one man’s attempts to grow tea in the Scottish Highlands.
The BBC profiled him on the One Show. Radio reporters flocked to interview him. Even the Chinese national news agency reported his work.
Tam O’Braan (as he was then known) was the first to ever sell Scottish tea, and the press went wild.
Fornum and Mason bought his leaves. The Dorchester created a new Scottish tea-tasting menu. Barack Obama reportedly tried his tea, and the Queen loved it.
Tam’s business started bringing in hundreds of thousands of pounds. But soon his lies began to unravel.
Today, with Jaega Wise, we tell the story of the Scottish tea scandal. We explain how Tam O’Brann fooled the world and the psychology behind why so many customers believed him.
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Listen to the BBC Food Program’s show on the scandal: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002mn01
Learn more about Jaega: https://www.jaegawise.com/
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Today’s sources:
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Maier, L., Schreier, M., Baccarella, C. V., & Voigt, K.-I. (2023). University knowledge inside: How and when university–industry collaborations make new products more attractive to consumers. Journal of Marketing.
Peterson, R. A., Kim, Y., & Jeong, J. (2019). Out-of-stock, sold out, or unavailable? Framing a product outage in online retailing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.
