I was suprised to see the  BNP endorse its campaign broadcast with the Marmite pack. Looking into the story, I found that Marmite actually dealt the first blow with a spoof ad on ‘the Hate Party’ that liberally samples from Nick Griffin’s semiotic grab bag.

It’s an interesting move from Unilever to make hey from election fervour and push the nationalist values from the brand, they borrowed heavily from Griffin’s party broadcast style.  Unfortunately for Unilver, the BNP has nothing to loose and everything to gain from increased publicity and attention.

While the course of action may have been predicted, it is interesting to see another bold move from the same brand that brought us the Campaign for Real Beauty – challenging our norms and working to increase self esteem in women. While not likely to form part of a more universal brand platform, the Marmite brand might be used to describe more British dichotomies and explore the British identity more fully to increase brand meaning.