According to the leading IP blog, the IPKAT, the British National Party has included a jar of Marmite in one of their political campaign advertisements. Marmite, and Unilever who owns the brand, were not amused and have threatened political action. See
http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2010/04/british-election-latest-marmite-takes.html
For readers who were deprived of a British or South African childhood, Marmite is a sandwich spread made from yeast extract, which is very healthy, and an excellent source of Vitamin B12. It is, however, an aquired taste, and unless one was introduced to it as a child, the smell would probably put one off tasting the stuff.
Personally, I go to extraordinary efforts to purchase the stuff locally in Israel, and Michael Jaegar of Marks and Clerk has brought me out a jar a couple of times when visiting Israel. My kids won’t touch it on bread, but like the flavoring it adds to soup.
Marmite is quintessentially British. So is the British National Party (BNP), which traces its roots to Oswald Mosely. The haircut of Party Chairman Nick Griffin is reminiscent of that of Adolf Hitler, and this is not coincidental.
Marmite is healthy and wholesome. Many in Britain consider the ultra-right BNP to be rather less healthy and wholesome.
Apparently Marmite had a spoof campaign featuring the Love Party and the Hate Party, and the BNP considered the hate Party as being modelled on them. USing Marmite in a political campaign was a revenge tactic.
COMMENT
I think that in a democracy, one should allow all parties including blatantly racist ones. I think that banning extreme parties is wrong, and think the Israel Knesset and Courts were wrong to ban Kach. The rise of the Nazi Party in the thirties in Germany does however show that Democracy has its faults. In a constituency system as in the UK, fringe parties are marginalized. In Israel, with National lists, they are centralized.
Spoofing political parties is legitimate. I believe that even very hard-hitting, controversial and bad taste satirizing of political leaders is legitimate. (This goes against Israel norms, where criticizing the left is considered incitement whereas derogatory statements about the right is considered legitimate freedom of speech).
A political party implying an association with a commercial product should, however, require the product manufacturer’s backing.
If I thought Marmite backed the British National Party, I’d probably boycott the stuff, so I am with Marmite and Unilever on this one.
Hilarious . . . agreed, political parties need to take care in what commercial products they utilize in negative advertising. Although something like this might have gone unnoticed before the Internet, you now have a situation where all campaign advertising is accessible online . . . and most companies won’t be amused if they find you are using their products’ images without permission, whether they agree with your politics or not. Very few companies want their products associated with a political party!
[...] The company that manufactures the food product Marmite is suing the British National Party . . . because the political group used a picture of a jar of Marmite in some of their campaign advertisements without permission from the company. According to The IP Factor: [...]
I found Marmite in a Russian delicatessen in Eilat.50 shmekels for the smallest jar available.
Used to have toasted crumpets with Marmite at 5.15pm after “Grandstand” on Saturday watching Doctor Who back home in Christchurch.
I “forked-out” the 50 shmekels just to have toast with Marmite while watching the Christmas Day Doctor Who Special.
25 years working here and the local “cultural pursuits” mean precisely the square root of diddley squat to me!
It was the mentality of folk who support, or would support if they had the “balls”, parties like the BNP.
It was rumoured that many “true blue conservatives” in Bournemouth completely supported the policies of the National Front but could not be seen to publicly support the party.
Not a lot of people know that.