Tweedy John Lydon defies credit crunch

Given that he composed a song in praise of anarchy, it is a delicious irony that while all around him lose their fortunes, John Lydon, aka The Sex Pistols’ frontman Johnny Rotten, appears to be one of the very few people capable of reversing the downward trend. His adverts for Country Life butter, in which the spikey-haired singer of Anarchy in the UK cavorts around the countryside dressed in tweeds, has helped lift sales of the brand by 85 per cent since they first appeared in October last year.

Manufacturers Dairy Crest, hit by spiralling milk prices, are delighted with the uplift given them by the former punk. The performance of Country Life butter, reports the Guardian, has helped steady investors’ nerves following a profits warning from Dairy Crest in November.

Lydon, 53, who once described himself as "the worst threat to our kids since Hitler", will be pleased, not least because it might lead to more lucrative advertising contracts, which could in very handy. While he did well out of his musical career, which proceeded from the Pistols to cult band Public Image Ltd, he made his fortune out of investing in real estate in California, a sector which has been catastrophically hit by the credit crunch.
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