Never Mind the Butter, Here's Johnny Rotten

Come to New Zealand, Johnny Rotten, and meet our cows, the dairy farmers of New Zealand are pleading.

Why would they proffer such an invitation to the former Sex Pistol now going by his real name of John Lydon? Because Lydon is a TV pitchman for Britain's Dairy Crest's Country Life brand of butter. In the TV spots, Lydon highlights the New Zealand provenance of Fonterra Anchor butter. In doing so, the author of "Anarchy in the U.K." appeals to British nationalism.

Fonterra is apparently under the impression that Lydon can be persuaded by the fact that Fonterra's cows are "free range" and that they eat grass whereas British cows are generally kept in feedlots and eat genetically modified grains.

But Lydon has made clear throughout his entire history that all he cares about is the filthy lucre. It's his whole shtick, in fact. Even if he could be persuaded to fly across the globe to hang around with cows, he likely wouldn't switch butter allegiances unless New Zealand's herdmasters were prepared to hand him a big check.

That seems unlikely. A spokesman for the Federated Farmers of New Zealand, which made the invitation, said dairy farmers are "the rock stars" of his country and it would be good for Lydon to join them. But he suggested that Lydon could pay his own travel expenses using the money he's making from the Country Life commercials.

In the spots, Lydon makes several references to British superiority, butterwise, only to say that's not the basis for his endorsement. "It's not about Great Britain, it's about great butter!"

A survey found that nearly four in 10 Brits thought Anchor butter was made by a British company, hence the Rotten campaign. Here's one spot:

A print ad takes the same tack. It features a wild-eyed Lydon popping out of the page with the banner headline "ANCHOR'S FROM NEW ZEALAND!" But Lydon again insists that he's motivated only by taste. Which would be a first.