BNP hate party face ruin over joke Marmite ad

Nick Griffin’s racist BNP is facing financial ruin after featuring Marmite in an ­election broadcast.

The party was hit with a massive claim – estimated at up to £170,000 – over the TV stunt, in which leader Griffin was pictured beside a huge jar of the spread. The party then showed a jar of Marmite – slogan “Love it or hate it” – with its own motto “Love Britain Vote BNP”.

Griffin claimed he intended the film as a humorous dig at Marmite, who he ­believed had mocked the BNP in their online and TV ads featuring a “Love Party” and their rivals the “Hate Party”, whose leader appeared to be loosely based on Griffin.

But bosses at Marmite makers Unilever were furious at the BNP broadcast and began High Court proceedings for breach of copyright.

The BNP caved in and the amount claimed is put by insiders at between £70,000 and £170,000. Former National Organiser Eddy Butler has said the BNP is “on the brink of bankruptcy”.

And last night a spokesman for anti-racism group Searchlight said: “The Marmite fiasco has been a disaster from start to finish for Griffin.”

Unilever confirmed a settlement had been reached but said the terms were confidential.

Sunday Mirror

BNP's copyright-breaching habits spread to the lower ranks

Green Arrow: copyright thief, idiot and bigotThe BNP's breach of copyright over the recent use of a Marmite jar in a broadcast without permission is likely to cost the party a hefty five-figure sum - corporate lawyers tending to dislike people who steal their company's intellectual property without either paying the going rate or at least asking their permission before use.

But it's not just the BNP itself that is happy to breach copyright law - the habit seems to have been passed on to at least one of the party's supporters.

Exactly six months ago, we reported that the cretinous bigot Paul Morris (yes, Green Arrow), one of Nick Griffin's most vocal arselickers, had stolen the work of artist Mark Simpson, who had supplied the artwork for a Green Arrow series for DC Comics back in 2006. When he had realised this, Simpson emailed Morris to object, only to be told by the petulant Morris that '…the origins of the Green Arrow name had nothing to do with some pathetic socialist comic hero', though what that had to do with the theft of someone else's well-crafted artwork wasn't made clear.

In any case, Simpson was informed that the image would be removed and that was an end to the matter as far as he was concerned. He had, it seems, only strayed on to the Green Arrow site by accident and, like most humans with a brain, was unlikely ever to visit the site again through choice.

However, Paul 'I love Porky Griffin' Morris, is not only a devoted creep, he is also a serial liar, as Denise reports in her excellent article here. And it is this article that led to one of our readers popping over for a quick peek at the Green Arrow site (screenshot, above), where he discovered that the image Morris had agreed to remove is not only still in place but appears to have doubled in size.

Perhaps this is Morris's way of thumbing his nose at the artist who dared to question his right to do whatever he pleases - Morris is nothing if not pompous and arrogant - but he may find that the owner of DC Comics, Warner Brothers, is even less forgiving than the owner of the Marmite brand, Unilever. Let's hope so, because we'd like our readers to complain about his theft of copyright images to DC Comics directly.

Naturally there are circumstances under which organisations would seek the permissions that Paul Morris should have sought. In his case though, he shouldn't bother, because DC Comics is pretty unequivocal on the matter.

'What follows are detailed guidelines for submitting a request for the right to use our materials...here’s a list of requests for which we will NOT grant permission'

'Military, government, or other political organizations, or requests of a military, governmental or political nature.'

Whoops. Feel free to contact the relevant people at DC Comics via email on dc_publicity@dccomics.com to express your surprise and dismay at seeing the artwork of one of their fine artists sullied by association with this rabidly racist buffoon. If enough people email them, we're pretty sure that DC will take a look at the Green Arrow site. Once they do that and see the kind of lunatic ramblings that take place there, a takedown notice should follow swiftly.

Thanks to Paul S for the heads-up.

BNP facing Marmite legal action

The maker of Marmite is threatening legal action against the British National Party to stop it from using a jar of the spread in a party broadcast.

Unilever said it had not given the BNP permission to use its product and was looking into taking out an injunction.

The BNP's online broadcast was removed from the party's website, but it is still available to view on file sharing website YouTube.

BNP leader Nick Griffin told the BBC the broadcast was created as a spoof.

Unilever said in a statement: "Neither Marmite nor any other Unilever brand are aligned to any political party.

"We are currently initiating injunction proceedings against the BNP to remove the Marmite jar from the online broadcast and prevent them from using it in future."

BBC News