Marketing - Written by Sarah Howard on Monday, April 26, 2010 10:34 - 0 Comments
BNP in trouble over Marmite spoof
Unilever has taken legal action against the British National Party (BNP) after the party featured Marmite in its political promotional campaign.
The political broadcast video was posted on video sharing website YouTube and showed a jar of Marmite floating on the top left hand side of the screen. It is claimed this use of the delicacy was revenge against Marmite’s own recent advertising campaign.
Marketing news publication Marketing Magazine reports that Marmite’s politically influenced advertising strategy showcases two fictional political parties, the Love Party and the Hate Party. Each party was shown to attack or defend the brand in its ‘Love it or hate it’ campaign.
Leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin commented that the hate party was clearly based on the BNP and described Unilever PR executives as ”like a rash.”
BBC news reports that the Marmite jar is not being included in official videos and that it had ”apparently” been inserted by someone reviewing the video as a joke. Griffin commented that “Although we are not responsible for whoever it was who inserted the Marmite jars into the internet version of the broadcast, we do see the amusing side.”
Griffin further discussed the issue, reportedly saying on his Facebook page: “They’ll be even more upset if they push us further and I start eating a jar of Marmite on my next live TV appearance!”
Meanwhile Unilever, the company behind the likes of Ben and Jerry’s, Flora, Dove and Vaseline, hit back, confirming that legal action was being undertaken to prevent the BNP from using their Marmite brand in any future political advertising, saying that the brand was not allied to any particular party.
A press release from Unilever states: “It has been brought to our attention that the BNP have included a Marmite jar in a political broadcast, showing currently online, and we want to make it absolutely clear that Marmite did not give the BNP permission to use a pack shot of the product in their broadcast.”
”We are currently initiating injunction proceedings against the BNP to remove the Marmite jar from the online broadcast and prevent them from using it in future.”
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