The Marmite Election

Abstract

‘What’s food for one is poison for another’ Marmite: You either love it, or hate it It’s black. It’s vegan. Its name is French, and it was invented by a German. As an icon for the British National Party, Marmite hardly seems to ‘tick all the right boxes’, least of all the far-right ones. Its attempted misappropriation by the BNP in that capacity in the course of the 2010 UK General Election would have been altogether incomprehensible but for two factors: for 10 years previously Marmite had been advertised under the slogan ‘Marmite. You either love it or hate it’; and for the 2010 General Election campaign Marmite’s advertising agents, DDB, had engaged in some harmless ‘ambush marketing’ by creating a parallel electoral campaign of their own, with an internet-based ‘Marmite News Network’ reporting on the televised campaigns of the two competing political parties. Not the real parties of the real election, of course, but fictional ‘Love’ and ‘Hate’ parties, a party of Marmite lovers pitted against a party of Marmite haters. The Love Party, led by the telegenic Fay Freely, was pledged to ‘Spread the Love of Marmite’, with policies including making Marmite available on the NHS, setting up anger management courses for Marmite haters, and providing Marmite-flavoured condoms for teenagers. Their opponents—the Hate Party—promised to ‘Stop the Spread of Marmite’ by creating designated Marmite-eating zones, a ‘Spread Offenders List’ of electronically tagged Marmite eaters, and special Marmite rehabilitation centres. But that was just the start. In one particularly hard-hitting scene from its second party election broadcast, the leader of the Hate Party, Steve Heaving, announced his party’s intention to round up all the Marmite lovers in Britain, and deport them to Guernsey.