Picture Caption: Spam generations: From the war through the Fifties and Sixties, Spam became the utility food that was a staple for families. Now it has been relaunched complete with its own cookbook
SPAM, the pink tinned meat lampooned by the Monty Python team, is reinventing itself. After years of ridicule, the spiced ham that became a national joke has been given a facelift and is about to be relaunched.
Advertising executives at the Underground agency have spent seven months trying to demolish the stereotypes surrounding the tinned meat in what they admit was a "marketing nightmare".
Tomorrow advertisements in weekly women's magazines will give the meat - a mixture of spiced pork and ham - a new upmarket image. They will stress that the meat's versatility and good value and give recipes detailing novel uses for Spam. The £150,000 six-week campaign, the first Spam advertising for more than a decade, is likely to be followed up by a television campaign next year. At its heart will be the slogan: "I can't believe I've just eaten Spam".
The move is a turnaround for Spam, which was propelled to legendary comic status by a Monty Python sketch in the 1970s featuring a cafe with little else on the menu. They also launched the Spam song. The words of the song were: "Spam, spam, spam."
The secret of Spam's original success was that it could be kept a long time. Modern cans can last seven years. During the Second World War it was often the only meat available to Allied soldiers and civilians.
The meat had its own song in the 1940s, well before the Monty Python classic, sung to the tune of My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean. It was first marketed in the early 1930s in the US as Hormel Spiced Ham. Sales were slow until it was renamed Spam, and advertised as the "miracle meat". It was introduced to Britain in 1941.
In 1994, during the VE-Day Anniversary celebrations there was a furore when it was announced that Spam would not be the star of a commemorative banquet at Culzean Castle, in Ayrshire, as hoteliers felt it was "too rich" in content for the veterans.
For all its nostalgic connotations, the meat has never been able to shake off the image that it is only edible when cooked in batter and eaten with chips. Only last December, the last factory in Britain producing the meat closed with the loss of 140 jobs. European production has now moved to Denmark.
Franco Farrell, creative director of the advertising agency Underground, said the reinvention of Spam was his biggest challenge in 12 years of advertising.
"We did some research on people's perceptions of Spam - and we found they were rooted in the Monty Python sketch. People also had memories of having Spam for school dinners, but they couldn't remember what it tasted like.
"We couldn't go out and say Spam is fantastic because people wouldn't believe us. Instead we've had a fresh look at it with new recipe ideas which might persuade people to give it a whirl."
As if to endorse the meat's new image, the advertising agency hired the fashionable Atlantic Bar and Grill, in London, for a champagne launch.
Despite being a national joke it is still popular, mainly with pensioners. Britons buy five million cans a year, making the UK the third biggest market behind the US and Korea.
Recipe ideas for Spamburgers, Deep Spam Pizza and Spicy Spam Rigatoni will be included in the advertisements, aimed at making Spam a family favourite. Shoppers will be able to send off for a recipe book, called SPAMtastic Meals in Minutes.
The campaign follows the introduction of new packaging. A new ringpull replaces the traditional key opener.
