Kingsmill insult the memory of ELVIS
Don’t buy Kingsmill bread !

Kingsmill is the leading brand of bread in the UK. They started a TV promotion using “The King” and an American Elvis tribute artist in their TV commercial campaign costing £7 million. It is a just a silly spoof about a 50’s Elvis , the King, their brand name and how Kingsmill (the King of breads) is now baked “By Appointment to the King”. The campaign was harmless and was a bit of fun. Sadly their campaign will now turn decidedly sick as they are now in the process of baking loaves of bread in the shape of Elvis’ head and if you find “Elvis’ head” in your packet…wow you can win a prize. There will be thousands of loaves of bread in the UK depicting the head of Elvis Presley. Not only can you but a loaf of bread in the shape of Elvis’ head you are even encouraged by the marketing department of Allied Bakeries to “toast” the King and why not bite off Elvis’ nose, chin or swallow the whole head whole? How many loaves will have Elvis’ face missing a nose or lips ? Will the bread become squashed looking like something out of a horror movie ? I cannot think of any advertising campaign as sick as this atrocity and promoted by none other than Associated British Food's no.1 brand of bread in the UK, Kingsmill. Perhaps "Sickmill" is a more appropriate name. Does their Chief Executive Officer know he is going to insult millions of Elvis fans, Elvis family and his memory ?

Kingsmill’s loaf shaped as Elvis’ head What is so sad is that I had a meeting with Bertie Ager, the representative of the PR company “Cake” who thought up the idea and the account executive of the advertising agency, Victoria Wilkinson of J Walter Thompson. I had hoped to help Kingsmill develop their campaign by bringing over “Donny Edwards” who featured in the commercial and put on stage shows with him, organise photo calls at supermarkets and put him in TV shows. Also, we discussed special Elvis offers on packs of Kingsmill bread. The meeting seem to be going fine until they told me what their next big marketing idea was and that was bread in the shape of Elvis’ head. I was shocked ! I was almost lost for words over such a sick idea and said the promotion would insult Elvis, his family and his millions of fans. I suggested using the shape of a crown or guitar or even a picture of Elvis inside the packet. Bertie listened to my point of view but dear little, jumped-up, arrogant and patronising madam Victoria (or Torie to her friends) said “I DON’T CARE WHAT ELVIS FANS THINK”. She left the meeting without saying goodbye or thank you. I continued to chat to Bertie while I packed my case and that was the last I heard of them. I had expected they had taken my advice and were waiting until the New Year to have a different campaign. They never came back, other than to confirm they would only use ‘the King’ and not ‘Elvis’ in their marketing and advertising. I phoned a few weeks later but Bertie was busy and promised to call me back but he didn’t. I sent an email again asking them not to have a campaign insulting Elvis’ memory but got no reply. Suddenly, I got an email from Hubert of the Belgium fan club featuring the disgusting loaf. This bread, in the shape of Elvis’ head, is being launched to honour (???) Elvis Presley’s 70th birthday by Kingsmill. They launched the first part of their campaign last week and publicity was featured in several major UK papers, ARE YOU LOAFSOME TONIGHT?, Toast the King and THE KING HAS RISEN ...just look at the image of Elvis portrayed in the media associated with such a demeaning campaign. Jo Sykes, of Kingsmill’s parent company Allied Bakeries said, “ What better tribute to the great man than to bake him his very own limited-edition loaf, for everyone to enjoy”,  WHAT GREATER INSULT…more appropriately !! This is one time EPE should use their power and influence to stop this terrible marketing campaign that is just insulting and demeaning to Elvis Presley, instead of harassing fan clubs to stop using the name Elvis. We want fans to write emails, letters, make phone calls to all the names provided below in two waves…immediately and then from January 3rd until January 8th. In Britain there is almost a public holiday from December 24th – January 3rd as most offices and many factories are closed. So there is no point trying to contact anyone at the offices of Kingsmill, Allied Bakeries, Associated British Foods, Cake and J Walter Thompson, the guilty firms. Also, fans may want to contact major supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury, ASDA, Safeway to ask them to withdraw from this awful marketing campaign. WHO TO CONTACT TO COMPLAIN to and stop this sick Kingsmill campaign