Vending

Pure Leaf's 'Break Machine' demands your phone for a free tea

Photo: Adobe Stock

July 29, 2025

Pure Leaf, in collaboration with Edelman, has launched "The Break Machine," a street vending machine designed to encourage consumers to disconnect from their phones for 10 minutes in exchange for a free iced tea, according to a report by The Drum. The activation, which recently appeared in New York, aims to address the widespread issue of people struggling to take meaningful breaks in an increasingly digitally saturated world.

The concept is simple: users insert their phones into a secure compartment within the machine, locking them away for a 10-minute period. In return, they receive a complimentary Pure Leaf iced tea. This initiative is a continuation of Pure Leaf's "Tea Break" campaign, which previously featured celebrity Lindsay Lohan, and now takes a more hands-on, experiential approach.

"By trading phones for real-brewed iced tea, we sparked moments of pause and revitalization," Zach Harris, VP and general manager of the Pepsi Lipton Partnership, told the news outlet. "The candid reactions we captured were just the beginning."

Pure Leaf's research indicates that while 81% of American workers acknowledge the mental benefits of breaks, only 37% actually take them daily. "The Break Machine" acts as an accountability device, a wellness experiment and a marketing stunt, successfully garnering significant traction on social media. The campaign is lauded for offering a low-tech solution to the high-tech problem of digital overload, reframing the act of taking a break without moralizing it.