Paddington Bear has broken the habit of a lifetime, swapping his trademark marmalade sandwich for Marmite in a TV ad campaign report The Guardian. In a TV commercial, Paddington – who for the past 49 years has kept an “emergency” marmalade sandwich to hand – decides that he “ought to try something different”.

The bear from deepest, darkest Peru, decides to go for Marmite and cheese, which he finds “really rather good” and then proceeds to feed a piece of the sandwich to a bird that lands nearby. Playing on Marmite’s advertising catchline of “You either love it or hate it”, the bird hates the taste and flies off, triggering a chain reaction that sees a taxi crash into a shop and a watermelon catapulted to hit a policeman.

The ad, created by DDB London, ends with Paddington being escorted away by a policeman. Marmite’s TV campaign will see Paddington return to UK TV in the stop-frame animation format in which it first appeared in 1975, and will be supported by radio ads in October. [Mof Gimmers]