'Are you barmy?': The Ashes showdown absolutely nobody saw coming
It’s the Ashes showdown absolutely nobody saw coming.
Not Steve Smith vs Joe Root, not Pat Cummins vs Stuart Broad.
It’s a battle of yeast-extract spreads!
The Ashes always stir up the England-Australia rivalry, but the beef between Vegemite and Marmite might be one of the most unexpected.
It starts innocently enough - on Tuesday, Marmite announced they would be handing out free jars of their spread, helpfully re-branded ‘Marmy Army’ in a bid to win over Aussie ex-pats and a few of their home fans to boot.
Unfortunately for the good people at Marmite, their campaign did not go unnoticed by Vegemite, who decided to take out a full page ad in UK paper The Mirror, purely to sledge their English rivals about who was better at both Test cricket and creating a spread out of yeast extract.
“News has reached down under that free jars of Marmite are being handed out at the Ashes to try to prove it tastes better than our Vegemite,” the ad read.
“Are you guys barmy? Of course the refined English palate will prefer yours.
“Vegemite tastes like back to back tons on your return Test. Vegemite tastes like a come from behind victory by 251 runs.
“Catch ya at Lord’s.”
Great bit of reactive advertising from Vegemite in today's Mirror. pic.twitter.com/ScXYP1sPwf
— Andrew Bloch (@AndrewBloch) August 8, 2019
Not done with their freshly printed ad in the Mirror, Vegemite then took to social media to recruit several high profile Australians.
These included cricketers Steve Smith, David Warner and Shane Warne, as well as the Prime Minister and opposition leader.
Ash Barty, Michael Klim, Dylan Alcott, Trent Cotchin and fan group the Fanatics were also canvassed for support.