Malta’s Mr Riley Has A Long-Lost Irish Brother
In a far, faraway land where clouds cover the blue skies, where rain washes away the sunshine and has carved out lush rolling green hills, a familiar looking potato snack mascot is scrolling through his iPhone, having an existential crisis.
“Who the bleedin’ f**k is this Mr Riley fella?” the slightly bulbous-headed, red coated and black-stripe trousered Irish Mr Tayto asks himself, staring at a near reflection on his pocket sized LCD screen.
There’s no denying it; the similarities are simply too uncanny to be overlooked. They are spot-on dopplegangers, two crisp-men cut from the same potato.
Lovin Malta embarked on a journey of intense investigative journalism to get to the bottom of these two iconic mascots’ story in an attempt to determine when the winds of time blew these potato brothers apart.
This is Mr Riley’s story according to manufacturers from the Rimus Group…
“In 1974, Peter Muscat Scerri initiated a joint venture with Riley Potato Crisps of Scunthorpe UK and Murphy Crisps of Dublin Ireland. The Maltese Government at the time prevented imports of such products. Hence in collaboration with Riley’s and Murphy, Rimus started to produce snack foods locally. They did so under the brands and logos of the two foreign partners.”
Mr Tayto has been knocking around since 1954, which would make him Mr Riley’s father? Older Brother? Relative, anyways.
So there you have it, end of debate! Malta’s Mr Riley is (probably) the brother of Irish Mr Tayto. Ireland and Malta can now put down their pitchforks and torches, and embrace at last.
We’re potato crisp-relatives after all…