Dick Smith trolls Vegemite with cheeky ‘Not Australian’ label

‘I NEVER thought it would work,” says outspoken entrepreneur Dick Smith of his brilliant trolling of Vegemite’s owners.

Dick Smith says he can’t eat Vegemite because it’s “not Aussie”.

DICK Smith has brilliantly trolled Vegemite’s foreign owners with a cheeky take on its personalised jar offer.

Devotees of the salty, quintessentially Australian spread can have their names printed on the label, similarly to the Nutella jars that were all the rage last Christmas.

But Mr Smith was not expecting Mondelēz International (formerly Kraft Foods Inc) to go along with the prank when a mate ordered a Vegemite jar labelled “Not Aussie”, in a dig at the brand’s American ownership.

“They just did it as a joke thinking that Kraft would say ‘no we’re not putting that name on it’,” he told news.com.au.

Vegemite was developed in Melbourne from brewers yeast in 1923 was originally Fred Walker Company, which became Kraft Walker Foods.

It is now owned by US confectionary company Mondelēz International, but is still manufactured in Port Melbourne. The Kraft logo was removed from the label several years ago.

Mr Smith, who sells a rival product called Aussiemite, said the novelty jar would go to waste as he could no longer bring himself to eat the original Vegemite.

“I used to love it but now I know it’s American owned I just can’t eat it, just like I can’t bring myself to go into an Aldi,” he said.

Besides, he said, “the vegemite these days tastes different. They changed the taste to try and make it so the Americans would like it, but they don’t like it anyway.”

The outspoken entrepreneur, who earlier this month voiced his support for One Nation’s Pauline Hanson and has previously flagged plans to start his own political party, vowed to “nationalise Vegemite” if he ever won power.

“We’ll own it and all the profits will stay here,” he said, acknowledging that the policy may not go down well with “capitalist voters”.

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Originally published as Dick Smith trolls Vegemite with cheeky ‘Not Australian’ label