You have to hand it to the admen at Marmite. As an ex adman myself I know how hard it is to get original ideas past the men in suits, especially when the idea flags up a truth about the product that the bosses don’t want to hear. We saw it with Pot Noodle, when the ads admitted what we already knew – that Pot Noodles were not gourmet snacks, they were what young people ate with a sense of shame but out of convenience.
Marmite, as everyone knows, is not to everyone’s taste. Telling that to a marketing man at any another company would probably get the agency fired off the account, but Marmite understands advertising.
And so we have the hugely enjoyable, and I am sure hugely effective, ‘Love it or Hate it’ campaign. I love the stuff myself and always have and so a new Marmite product gets me tearing open the wrapping when it arrives freshly biked from their PR office.
Marmite Cereal Bars. How bonkers is that? It’s made with oats, wheat and rice, much like any other of those cereal bars you eat as an easier way of consuming a hair shirt. Ordinary cereal bars add fruit to make the horror more palatable, this mob have added Marmite.
And yes it does divide opinion. One designer couldn’t wait to spit it out and barely made it to the bin in time before he did. Roger, one of the business chaps, was more thoughtful as suits his profession. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said, taking another bite, ‘no I’m not sure at all,’ taking a further bite. He was still unsure after he’d eaten the whole thing, so I’d take that as a ‘yes’ if I was Marmite.
You can buy it in Morrison’s from November 2 and then add your own opinion at www.facebook.com/marmite. Me, I love it and I love the quirky and smart packaging too. Take that Vegemite, you rubbish pretender!