Yorkshire-based Quorn Foods has been forced to make an embarrassing u-turn after being slammed on social media after its most recent advert had a remarkable similarity to a famous meme.

The normally social media savvy global meat-free company, based in Stokesley in North Yorkshire, posted a now deleted video of bobbing unicorns (or uni-quorns) interlaced with “mushroom, mushroom,” an uncanny likeness to the viral Badgers cartoon.

Jonathan “Jonti” Picking, creator of the animated cartoon Badgers in which squatting Badgers repeat “Badger, Badger, Badger” and then “mushroom, mushroom,” called Quorn Foods out on twitter after @QuornFoodsUK tweeted their UniQuorn video with the words: “Don't believe what the grown-ups told you, UniQuorns are REAL! Magically golden, magically crunchy, and magically vegan!”

The tweet and instagram post featuring Quorn’s video, which has now been deleted, triggered a huge backlash online when Jonti @TheWeebl shared Quorn’s tweet with the response: “Hi. Who do I contact about the blatant ripping off of my copyrighted work this time?”

Quorn replied: “Hey @TheWeebl, here at Quorn, we are HUGE fans of yours and the iconic Badger, Badger, Badger (it’s been stuck in our head since 2003). If you could please send us a DM with your best email address and phone number, we can chat in more detail”

After @TheWeebl’s tweet was supported by a whole clan of Badgers fans, he added: “Somewhere in Leeds a few peoples morning has gone from "oh wow our social stuff is getting some decent views" to "uh oh".

“Just because it's on the web or a meme doesn't mean you can use it commercially. If ‘creative’ is in your job title you should know this.”

It seems the Vegan crispy UniQuorns were actually inspired by a Quorn-lovers tweet to the company in which one fan tweeted a mocked up design of ‘UniQuorns’. (https://twitter.com/emz48786452/status/1510367157468778501?s=21&t=N0FGdMMg2WNM-JfQx--SzA)

Quorn got itself into a tricky situation on social media with the creator of the famous Badger Badger Badger cartoon

The magical invention is supposed to sit alongside Quorn’s Vegan Dinosaurs.

Jonti, who was also involved in the 118 247 adverts, later tweeted: “Agencies. If you like a particular piece by a creator for a project then you might consider contacting them to see if they would be involved.

“It's often their job, and who could do better at working in the style you like than the one who already does it?”

But miraculously Quorn managed to find the end of the rainbow by dealing directly with Badgers creator Jonti

He then tweeted: “Looks like we've got a solution to the Quorn situation that everyone should be happy with. HUGE thank you for everyone's support, especially @austenkay for all your help. It's means so much and I'm utterly humbled by the response.”

Quorn later tweeted: “Badger, Badger, Badger fans, we hear you and we hold our hands up.

“We should have involved @TheWeebl from the outset. We’ve now connected with him and are pleased to announce we are now collaborating on a new and improved UniQuorns video. So watch this space…”

Badger Badger Badger: Quorn’s ‘UniQuorn’ advert is pulled after pressure from fans of viral cartoon