Marmite adverts banned in Britain for scaring kids

Marmite may be a New Zealand institution but it has been found guilty of terrifying small children in Britain.

Adverts filmed in Thames last year, which featured a giant blob of Marmite controlled by Thames rugby players, have been pulled from children's viewing times in Britain.

The two adverts, filmed for Unilever Bestfoods, which looks after the brand in Britain, were based on the 1950s movie The Blob and carried the slogan "you either love it or hate it".

At least six toddlers definitely did not love the commercials.

Britain's Advertising Standards Authority received complaints from their parents, four of whom said their children refused to watch TV after seeing the commercials, and the other two saying their kids suffered nightmares.

The ASA said the complaints were enough to ban the adverts from running during children's programming.

The commercials were filmed around Thames in November by Auckland company The Sweet Shop.

People from all over the Coromandel were recruited as extras, including four Thames rugby players charged with rolling around the streets of the town in the plastic Marmite blob.

One advert featured a couple running from the blob before the woman realises what it is and runs towards it. Other people then dive in or run away.

The second features a man diving into the blob with a cheese sandwich.

Rugby player Luke Hampton said he did the advert as a bit of a laugh.

" It's turned out to be even more of a laugh. That's pretty funny. I honestly didn't think it would come to that, I didn't think it was that offensive."

He said British Marmite tasted different to the New Zealand spread - which Kiwis eat 600 tonnes of a year - and suggested the British taste was more terrifying than the advert.

Marmite is marketed by Sanitarium in New Zealand. Brand manager Kit Raham said the "you either love it or hate it" concept was good.

"That's one way of presenting it," he said. "It sounds like it shouldn't have been shown in kids' time."