08 Aug Marmite vs. The Blob—Revisited

What can I say? A day late and a dollar short, as usual. Or a pound sterling short, as the case may be. It seems that the good folks at Unilever were well ahead of Your Humble Narrator when it comes to the Marmite/Blob synergistics. Turns out that back in 2005 they launched an ad campaign in which customers at a supermarket start screaming and running for the exits when a gigantic, well, Blob starts rolling and oozing its way through the aisles and down the High Street. That is, until a few observant observers realize that the hideous monster is, in fact, a giant Blob of Marmite. At this point they turn and start launching themselves head-first into the ball of goo. All in good fun you might say, but problems quickly arose when reports started coming in that children were being traumatized by the ad. Some parents reported that their wee ones were not only frightened but were experiencing recurring nightmares as a result of viewing the commercial.

This was nearly 20 years ago and there seems to be no followup data to determine whether these lads and lasses suffered PTSD or any measure of permanent psychological derangement because of the Marmite/Blob ads. Either way, Unilever heard the cries of dismay and stopped airing the ad during times when impressionable young minds were potentially at risk.

Those were simpler times, of course, and in the intervening years we have had to deal with Blobs of a much more menacing nature: An Orange Blob here in the colonies, and its counterpart, the Blond Blob, back across the pond. I’d gladly leap head first into a bouncy house-sized ball of Marmite rather than have to contend with either one of those two real life monsters again.

On this, and all other Marmite-related matters, Steve McQueen remains unavailable for comment.