IMMEDIATE RELEASE 30/05/2012

Sanitarium Slam “Yeast And Desist” Marmite Notice On Habitual Fix

When Kiwis are in a situation of need, fresh food junkies Habitual Fix have proven they are happy to step up and do something about it and now, they’re in trouble for it.

Big time.

During the Marmite shortage, the healthy food chain tried to import a small amount of British Marmite to spread amongst their nutrition-hungry underbelly, only to find foodstuffs juggernaught, Sanitarium, were not as forthcoming in spreading the love.

The Original Marmite was sold in a product called The Original Marmite Sandwich. Not a particularly original name for a very original blend of cos lettuce, champagne ham, aoli, cheese, caramelised onion and tomato, all served on their own freshly baked bread

Talkback host Leighton Smith described the sandwich as ‘Delicious’ and local champion blogger Cam Slater from whaleoil.co.nz complained he didn’t receive one. The reaction changed to delight when he did receive his sammie, a few hours later.

A phone call from Sanitarium’s Marketing heads began with congratulations and trans-Tasman warm fuzzies about the product. That was until the conversation turned into a “Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way” type conversation, with the mention of possible legal proceedings, financial claims for damages and a demand that sales of the product be halted immediately.

Consequently, this action has led to a name change of the product and a date to cease the campaign altogether on June 14th. With the help of an all-nighter from their marketing team, Habitual Fix have censored all their collateral, stickering print and covering any audio with a ‘beep’. The product is now called The Original BEEPmite Sandwich. Habitual Fix have even gone as far as to provide a printable sheet of BEEP stickers so that “the public aren’t at the risk of legal action either”.

A Habitual Fix franchisee was quoted today as saying: “We were only trying feed a need when others couldn’t and now because of them, we are just left with a bitter taste in our mouths.”

So again, here’s a toast to Kiwi battlers Habitual Fix for attempting to extract and spread a little black gold among their fresh food fanatics in this classic David and Greedy Goliath story, only to receive a yeasty response from the Multi-nationals.

On a bright note, Habitual Fix have apologised publicly, intending no ill will to Sanitarium. And battling on to feed Kiwis’ fresh food fix, are giving away a small amount of the real NZ BEEPmite with every Original BEEPmite Sandwich.

Watch apology video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmi8hIzu-E&feature=youtu.be

ends

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