TV Cream

Bric-a-Brac: G is for...

Gold Spinner

Not so much a cheese spread, more a way of life. Well, that was the marketing plan, at least. In the admittedly small world of foil-wrapped triangular processed cheesy spreads, Dairylea reigns supreme. It was not ever thus: the 1970s played host to St Ivel’s Gold Spinner, a tenacious paste of solid milk which sought to steal a march on Kraft’s creation. Firstly, it upped the zany flavours ante with a multifarious assortment of tomato, pickle and onion-augmented wedges. Secondly, a cartoon ad campaign was cooked up, featuring Roderick, a gawky, accident-prone pre-teen in outsize baseball cap, who got into amusing scrapes as his frizzy-haired lisping sister and pet dog looked wryly on. This seemingly watertight approach was no match for Dairylea’s stage school showcase campaign, and the brand didn’t make it far into the 1980s.

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Oscar Grillo

    July 21, 2010 at 9:04 am

    I’ve animated the commercials. They were written by the legendary John Webster. The end line was changed in the films that went to the air, but the original one was: “Gold Spinners, delicious cheese spread from St. Ivel. If you can peel it you can eat it, if you can eat it you’ll love it…if you can peel it.”

  2. Polly

    January 1, 2021 at 3:18 pm

    Any possibility of getting the footage of that advert? My brother was in a Gold Spinney advert in the 1970s and we are trying to locate it

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

To Top