Free Tea
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Advertisement for a beverage that is available in Japanese convenience stores:
The label identifies the drink as "FREE Tea" ( furī tī フリーティー) and as being produced and distributed by the Japanese beverage giant Pokka Sapporo. This does not mean that you should feel free to help yourself to a bottle without paying! Rather, "free" here is being used in the sense of "sutoresufurī ストレスフリー" ("stress-free"), as is made a bit clearer by the band of lettering at the top of the ad:
sutoresu shakai kaihō ōen Inryō ストレス社会解放応援飲料
("beverage that supports liberation from 'stress society'").
The label also notes that "FREE Tea" contains GABA extract, which is supposed to give the tea a soothing quality.
"FREE Tea" made big waves on Twitter recently when a non-Japanese Asian took the English name literally (in the wrong sense) and drank a bottle of it in a store without paying. See:
- "Foreigner accused of shoplifting tea in Japan, label to blame" (RocketNews24, 11/1/16)
- "When a drink gets lost in translation" (BBC News, 11/8/16)
[h.t. Nathan Hopson]
Ben Zimmer said,
November 15, 2016 @ 3:06 pm
Reminds me of a story about Ornette Coleman and free jazz (which I shared last year after he died):
mira said,
November 15, 2016 @ 4:24 pm
There was a coffee shop near where I lived in the Czech Republic that had a sign saying "Wifi Free". I initially interpreted it to mean that wifi wasn't allowed, like "smoke free", but of course it meant "free wifi".
Cervantes said,
November 15, 2016 @ 6:44 pm
And then there was the (railway) Station Book-Shop somewhere in Oxfordshire that used to advertise "Free Post-Cards, 3p each."
Gwen Katz said,
November 15, 2016 @ 11:41 pm
Free as in speech or free as in tea?
Graeme said,
November 16, 2016 @ 7:00 am
Hmm. Iced caffeinated drink is a cure for stress?
What does the author of A History of Tea say?
Vulcan With a Mullet said,
November 16, 2016 @ 11:11 am
"Stress Society" is a great name for a post-punk band.
DWalker07 said,
November 16, 2016 @ 5:59 pm
Mmmm… Sapporo….. Fizzy, brewed, with hops and the best barley malt…..
Reinhold {Rey} Aman said,
November 16, 2016 @ 7:04 pm
"Free Willy" (1: liberate an orca; 2: gratis penis).
Filter Fodder said,
November 18, 2016 @ 2:48 am
Given that it's lemon tea, might it be a play-on-words with フルーティー, fruity, as well?
John Quiggin said,
November 21, 2016 @ 5:24 pm
I was quite puzzled by French laundromats offering "service libre"