Sunday 18 April 2010

Spreading the hate, or the Isle of Marmite

I think the Tourist Department is missing a trick.
On 29th March, Marmite unleashed a spoof election campaign featuring the Love Party and the Hate Party, running in tandem with what passes for a chance for Brits to choose their next oppressor, complete with smarmy party leaders, unlikely election promises and what have you. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/29/marmites-ads-parallel-election for a brief idea, and http://www.facebook.com/MarmiteHateParty?v=app_4949752878 for an example of one party line.
Now when I saw the latest Hate Party telly ad I could have sworn they were threatening, if victorious, to ban Marmite-lovers to Guernsey. Bit rough I thought, and anyway, the Isle of Man already has past form running internment camps where Mosleyites were treated as royalty, while black International Brigade veterans and Jewish refugees were treated like scum. We also have current form on locking up minority religion remand prisoners from the Asian and Indian subcontinents (before deporting them quietly without so much as a court hearing) and pretending asylum–seekers don’t exist, so why not us?
But as it happens, the Hate Party are only threatening to round up Marmite stocks, not Marmite-eaters. Even so, it seems to have stirred up Guernsey residents (see http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2010/04/03/guernsey-targeted-in-marmite-ad-campaign/ ).
Mind you, if the idea is to regard Marmite as a pollutant, even the combined ranks of Manx treehuggers and their greenwashing government and corporate sponsors cannot deny that the Isle of Man has pollution problems already. In fact, in less literate parts of the island, major pollutants actually get elected.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Have a look at the VisitGuernsey blog post entitled "New campaign tells Marmite lovers to go to Guernsey" http://blog.visitguernsey.com/ and maybe vote in our twitpoll. :)