Most people can remember where they were when some momentous
event or news hits the headlines.
Suddenly everything assumes a certain clarity.
You may feel it necessary to contact your loved ones, or if you are not in the sanctuary
and safety of your preferred place then it may be a top priority to get there.
That was the case for me this week when…..wait for it…. It was announced that
the Unilever Corporation is to launch a Marmite infused Peanut Butter.
It is not the first time that those with the Commercial Rights, over what has
been for the last six decades my most favourite of all spreads, have messed
about with perfection.
Everything was fine and dandy in the world of brewers
yeast for most of the twentieth century under the stewardship of The Marmite
Limited Company and indeed for a short period after having been acquired by pseudo
rivals on account of them being beefy based, Bovril.
Those iconic dark glass
jars ,metal screw lids and the unique livery had remained substantially unchanged
for the duration and contributed to the very homely association of the product amongst
the proportion of the population who like it.
I did at one time have a full
collection of the jar sizes in their original form and they were the first things
to be carefully wrapped and packed in successive job induced house moves.
In
the interests of authenticity I didn’t bother to wash any of them out. That was
essential of course in the event that they could, in the very distant future ,possibly be some of the only surviving artefacts of this post industrial era.
I
hate to think that those traces of Marmite could not be genetically replicated
and made available to humankind or others.
A radical change took place in 1990
when one of the largest food companies in the United States, CPC International
Inc purchased the Trademark name. At face value they appeared to be safe hands for a
heritage type product as they were themselves almost as old as Marmite having been founded in 1906.
Some of
their own portfolio were household names including Mazola, Hellmans and Knorr.
It was not to be. Soon after having been taken into American ownership there
was a rebranding and with the wonderful metal lids being replaced in cerrated
edge plastic ones. I also noticed a thinning down of the quality of the jars.
CPC
changed its trading name in 1998 to Best Foods and through the machinations of
the Corporate World a subsequent merger put the trademark on the product shelf,
the very extensive one, of Unilever.
Somewhere amongst the to-ing and fro-ing
there were the abominations of squeezy delivered Marmite, various alcoholic traces
in the form of Guinness Marmite, Marston Ales Marmite, Champagne infusion and
even a chocolate manifestation.
I generally approved of the introduction
of Marmite on snacks like Twiglets, rice cakes, crisps and other snacks purely
because of the fact that it is in an otherwise unadulterated form.
However the
impending launch of Marmite Peanut Butter is stepping over the line of spread credibility.
Unilever
claim it to be a natural progression and that it is what the Nation has
requested although I suspect that in Brexit Type Speak that is not very convincing
and I would welcome an opportunity to see the marketing research and what
demographic of the public took part in such a critical process. The Unilever web page as of today showed that in a poll of 23079 and counting the split of opinion was 59% to 41% of those who would put it on their toast.
It could be the
case that a bus load of Americans happened upon the Focus Group organisers as
any true Marmite Officianado would send any clipboard carrying individual away
with a flea in their ear for raising the very idea of the combination.
I just hope that this ill thought out venture does
not bring about a decline in overall Marmite consumption and cause Unilever to re-assess
the viability of this bit of food history in the competitive and global foodstuff
market.
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