Love It? Hate It? Read It. A brief history of Marmite ads

Unilever’s decision to fold (not spread) Marmite into its newly announced food deal with McCormick is the sort of corporate move that weirdly makes ad people go a bit misty-eyed. After all, the product has long been one of those rare brands whose advertising has managed to be as distinctive as the product itself.

The sale is part of a wider move that sees Unilever further retreating from food, after earlier separations in spreads, tea and ice cream, to focus on its arguably less creatively-adventurous but higher growth personal care and cleaning business.

While Marmite has dined out on the simple product truth – people either love it or hate it – for three decades, its advertising heritage goes right back to the start of commercial TV. But if there’s a universal truth in the best Marmite work, it’s that brand value does not come from the distinctive jar, the label, or even the questionable yeast byproduct of brewing inside it – it’s the attitude of the advertising.

Marmite's most enduring brand positioning ('love it, hate it') has lasted longest because, much like the product's claggy viscosity on a kitchen table, its elasticity means it has the ability to stretch, most notably into entertainment.

So, as Marmite heads into a new corporate chapter, here’s a look back at some of its best UK TV ads – from early archive curiosities to the films that turned a divisive breakfast spread into one of British advertising’s most reliable marmalade droppers.

'Swing' (1957)

A charmingly old-school bit of Marmite history, this is the brand before the attitude arrived: jaunty, functional and very much of the post-war UK advertising era.

'The Growing Up Spread' (1978)

This spot shows Marmite in its more wholesome, pre-polarisation/fun phase, selling nourishment and family utility.

'Soldiers' (1987)

An early sign of Marmite moving away from straight family-food messaging and into more characterful, adult territory, this spot made the "My Mate Marmite" strapline famous before it was supplanted. Interestingly it also harks back to Marmite's historical role in the military - it was included in British soldiers' ration packs during World War I and II to combat beri-beri, providing essential Vitamin B.

'Taste Test' (1997)

One of the foundational expressions of Marmite’s modern identity that was created by Richard Flintham and Andy McLeod in 1996, this ad takes the product’s divisive taste and turns it into the whole point of the brand.

'Freak Show' (2002)

A properly odd piece of early-2000s Marmite work, 'Freak Show' leans into the brand’s taste-divisiveness by making discomfort part of the entertainment.

'The Blob' (2004)

This is Marmite going full B-movie: a giant black mass rampages through a town while some people flee in horror and others run towards it with delight.

'Paddington' (2007)

DDB London’s 'Paddington' ad hijacks one of Britain’s most beloved characters (before so many others then followed), swapping marmalade for Marmite and cheese.

'End Marmite Neglect' (2013)

Adam&eve/DDB launched a spoof public-service rescue operation for all those forgotten jars languishing unloved and at the back of kitchen cupboards.

'The Marmite Gene Project' (2017)

This spot takes the brand’s central truth and gives it a mock-scientific polish, suggesting that whether you love Marmite or loathe it is somehow coded into your DNA. It was directed by the late James Rouse.

'Mind Control' (2019)

Adam&eve/DDB gave Marmite’s eternal conversion fantasy a pseudo-scientific twist, building the campaign around hypnosis and behavioural tricks designed to turn haters into lovers.

'Baby Scan' (2023)

This spot updates the lover-versus-hater idea by following expectant parents desperate to know not the sex of their baby, but whether it will grow up to adore Marmite or recoil from it. It was created by Ant Nelson and Mike Sutherland who are now chief creative officers of adam&eve\TBWA.

Unilever may be cashing out, but Marmite leaves its stable as one of those rare brands that cracked the hardest trick in advertising: finding and settling on a single distinctive idea and then having an agency that made it pay, repeatedly, for years, without boring everyone to death. Not bad for a gloopy brown spread that half the country still thinks tastes of punishment..