Forget Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, there’s a new laughing stock in the advertising world.  Last night a new advertising campaign for Country Life Butter began on British TV.  Its star is John Lydon, better known as Sex Pistols frontman Johnnny Rotten.

Now I don’t really need to describe why the advert itself is bad.  Just watch it for yourself below and you’ll see.  “It’s not about Great Britain, it’s about great butter” Lydon argues in the ad.  Fine, but when did anyone even mention Great Britain?  Er, they didn’t.  Last time I checked butter wasn’t a symbol of jingoistic Britishness.

Rather flawed premise aside, a couple of questions remain:

1. Why Lydon do it?

Until a few years ago, John Lydon had a cache of cool about him.  Having been a member of two critically acclaimed and groundbreaking bands, The Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd, meant he had the respect of musicians and music fans worldwide.

Most old punks are happy to retire into the background and live on the ongoing songwriting and performance royalties of their hits.  While Lydon is certainly entitled to continue working for a living, surely he’d want to hang onto his cool?  Surely he’d want to hang onto the respect of so many people?  No, instead he took a nice big cheque and appeared on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.  Now, when everyone has just about forgotten about that he sells his soul for second time by promoting something as pedestrian and un-punk as butter.

2. Why did Country Life choose him?

Seriously, why?  Maybe they needed someone who symbolised a ‘British rebel’ but surely they could pick someone who hadn’t recently been involved in a violent racist incident against Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke. That’s not very wholesome behaviour for a family brand.

So, who comes out well from this advert?  Not Lydon – he hasn’t regained his ‘cool’ from this. A nation of old punks and younger people who respect his musical heritage continue to think of him as a joke.  Not Country Life either – while they probably care little about whether Lydon is cool or not (it’s butter, after all) they’ve associated themselves with a man who has a reputation for hanging around with racist thugs.

So, it’s a rather awful advert that puts a nasty stain on everyone involved.  Great work!  Tea and scones anyone?  Make mine with Flora if you would…

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