Marmageddon

English

Etymology

Marm(ite) +‎ -mageddon

Noun

Marmageddon

1. (New Zealand) A national shortage of Marmite in New Zealand from early 2012 until late 2013, following damage in the 2011 earthquake to the Christchurch factory that produced the product.
   • 2012 March 20, Alan Gibson, “Marmageddon': There's always Vegemite, says PM”, in New Zealand Herald:

     Prime Minister John Key is among thousands of Kiwis having to ration their Marmite, as 'Marmageddon' enters its second day.

   • 2012 July 11, Christopher Adams, “Fears spread of Vegemite shortage”, in Otago Daily Times:

     First it was "Marmageddon" as Marmite vanished from shop shelves - now Vegemite has been hit by supply problems.

   • 2013 September 30, “Marmite returns to shelves post Christchurch earthquake”, in Marketing magazine Australia:

     Following the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, Marmite fans faced 'Marmageddon' with the Sanitarium factory forced to cease production of the well known condiment due to extensive renovations of its earthquake damaged factory.

   • 2018 July 19, Jennifer Bowden, “Remember Marmageddon? It could be the key to your food cravings”, in Stuff:

     The Marmageddon reaction seemed entirely out of proportion to the problem.

2. (UK) Synonym of Marmitegate
   • 2016 October 13, “'Marmageddon' called off as Marmite returns to UK shelves”, in The Journal:

     (see title)

   • 2016 October 14, Phil Teer, “Marmitegate will mark the moment that Brexit got real”, in Campaign:

     The Sun called it Marmageddon while the Daily Mail condemned "marmite whingers" and urged patriotic consumers to boycott Unilever and switch to Bovril (oblivious to the fact that Bovril is also owned by you-know-who).

   • 2016 October 28, Sarah Butler, Julia Kollewe, “Morrisons puts Marmite price up 12.5%”, in The Guardian:

     It was dubbed Marmageddon: a very public spat between two of the giants of the grocery business – Tesco and Unilever – that saw the supermarket giant refuse to accept price rises on hundreds of Unilever products and that resulted in Marmite disappearing from Tesco’s shelves and website.

   • 2016 December 27, Carol Silveira, “On the brink of Brexit: Scotland's future in Europe”, in The New Federalist:

     From Westminster, we hear the cry that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, a phrase which is devoid of any real semantic meaning; while from the tabloids, we are given a taster of the early effects of Brexit on our favourite products – a potential marmageddon or toblerone doom.