Spam set for TV comeback

The wartime favourite is making another push for UK mealtimes

Wartime food staple - Spam - is making a comeback in the UK, at least on its TV screens.

US firm Hormel Foods is launching a new £2m advertising campaign to get the meat product off the shelves and onto our plates.

A fad for all things retro has seen Spam sales recover from their 1980s low point and Hormel is hoping to capitalise on the trend.

The ads will remind Britons that Spam is "still out there", the firm said.

Retro return

The five-week television push will begin next Monday and will be aimed at the over-45s.

The adverts, the first to be seen in the UK since 1998, will star a variety of British characters tucking into the spiced pork and ham meat product, including builders, campers and pantomime characters.

SPAM FACTS Launched in Minnesota in 1936 with the advertising slogan "Tastes fine, saves time". More than five billion cans have been made worldwide - that would encircle the globe 12 and half times if placed end to end. Hormel halted UK production of Spam, moving the operation to Denmark in 1997

Hormel will be hoping that the push sparks a turnaround in UK fortunes and helps it to shake off the fusty image that was famously ridiculed by Monty Python and prompted many consumers to can the foodstuff in recent years.

While 15 million UK homes buy cold tinned meat every week, just two million choose Spam.

The adverts, however, could capitalise on last year's performance, which saw Spam sales increase 9.7% to £13.3m.

But while Spam doesn't seem to be bringing home the bacon in the UK, it has amassed a cult following in the country of its birth, the US.

Over the Atlantic, the foodstuff has its own fan club, website, recipe books and even museum.