Marmite is launching legal action against the British National Party after an image of the spread was used in a political broadcast without the company's permission.

The famous jar appeared in the top left hand corner of the screen while party leader Nick Griffin was addressing viewers in a BNP general election broadcast on the web. The 4.48 minute video then ends with an image of the spread alongside the words "love Britain, vote BNP". Marmite's advertising is based around the slogan "love it or hate it" - an idea the BNP appears to have been trying to adopt.

A spokesman for Marmite told Sky News Online: "It has been brought to our attention that the British National Party has included a Marmite jar in a political broadcast shown currently online. We want to make it absolutely clear that Marmite did not give the BNP permission to use a pack shot of our product in their broadcast. 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."

We at cleverthingies are all for free speech but we like to think that there is a modicum of truth and intelligence behind it.

They claimed that there was a historical precedent.

The original was here