Watch: ‘Controversial’ noodle miners ad resurrected by Welsh bar
As a nation we’ve been going potty for Pot Noodle for more than 40 years – and whisper it quietly but isn’t it now time we claimed it as our own.
According to their website, ‘despite the rumours, Pot Noodle is not made in heaven, but somewhere pretty similar – Crumlin, South Wales. We’ve called it our home since 1979.’
For many it is common knowledge that the enduring snack in a pot is ‘Welsh’, for others this may be something of a revelation.
And when we say Welsh, we don’t mean in the laverbread, Welsh rarebit or cawl sense of course, but that it has been manufactured here for so long that we may as well now claim it as a homegrown delicacy.
Noodle nostalgists will tell you it’s been a British staple since the 70s, and the factory in Crumlin has been serving up this most easily prepared of snacks to the nation for over 40 years.
Those far flung expats at the Welsh Dragon Bar in New Zealand certainly believe in this Welsh delicacy.
The home away from home hostelry in Wellington which offers a warm Welsh welcome, recently celebrated its 19th birthday and decided to start stocking Pot Noodle as a snack offering to compliment the many Welsh beers and spirits they stock.
To mark the moment they took to social media to announce the arrival of Pot Noodle, by using the infamous noodle miners advert that aired on TV screens in 2006, depicting Welsh miners hard at work at the noodle face.
The bar wrote on its Instagram account: ‘All the way from the noodle mines of Wales, we are now serving Pot Noodle. Are we the only bar in the southern hemisphere serving this fine delicacy?’
When it aired the ad received complaints from people who deemed it derogatory to the Welsh.
The commercial featured former miners now employed at Crumlin’s Pot Noodle factory and was set in the village, which saw its coalmine closed in 1967.
The Advertising Standards Authority received some 81 complaints, however it was deemed that the advert was not offensive or racist to Welsh people, the advertising watchdog ruled.
The advert used to launch a new range of the snack, was “tongue in cheek”, maker Unilever said.
The advert which saw miners getting strands of Pot Noodle from a “noodle mine” featured a Welsh-accented tagline “Fuel for Britain, isn’t it”.
The ASA said: “We acknowledged that the ad offended some viewers. However, we did not consider the depiction of Welsh miners in the ad was derogatory to the Welsh.”
*Eagle-eyed viewers may notice the appearance of comedian Mark Watson in the advert. The Bristol comic, who started his career performing with a Welsh accent, is pictured here on the right.
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Corporate cringe
It’s not racist but it is derogatory. That factory was plonked down in Wales after Thatcher closed the mines and people were desperate for work. Showing miners digging for that corporate [quote unquote] food is an outright insult. Laughing at the hardships the area faced and having to resort to manufacturing that 80s slop. It has no association with Wales or the Welsh. We also have IKEAs, Esso and McDonald’s here but we weren’t on the decision committees for them either. Additionally, Welsh people have tasted real food before. We’re not all ‘potty’ for it but thanks for the patronising… Read more »
I am Welsh and actually don’t live far from this area. Thank God I am at the age where I find this funny and not at the age where people get upset and start crying to mammy when they get upset.
What age are you? You havent yet young up the school yard approach to conversation yet so by your comment I’d guess you were still very young?
I’d buy a Laverbread an Cockles Pot Noodle. They can have that idea for free. How about it, bois?
The advert is more tastefull than a pot noodle, but hats not saying much.