Fans of the Beatles fear the misuse of the Fab Four’s music may have hit rock bottom following the decision to license All You Need Is Love for use in a nappy advert.

Forty years ago the song became a peace anthem during the Vietnam war. Now it is being used in television ads in America to promote Luvs, a brand of disposable nappy.

Procter & Gamble (P&G), which makes the nappies, as well as Fairy Liquid and other household goods, purchased the rights to use the song from Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which now owns Northern Songs, the Beatles’ catalogue.

It is a joint venture with the singer Michael Jackson, who originally bought the songs. The company does not need permission from Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr or the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison to licence a Beatles lyric.

But fans are sharing their anger on internet forums and calling for a protest campaign to swamp P&G and Saatchi & Saatchi, the British advertising agency which commissioned the commercial. The fans hope they may force the withdrawal of the advert by “making a big stink”, as one fan put it.

The ad features a baby jumping on a teddy bear in a disposable nappy which offers “ultimate leak protection” while a Beatles copy band sings All You Need Is Luvs. Saatchi & Saatchi say the song was chosen to appeal directly to mothers and “break through the diaper advertising clutter”.

Fans see it differently. “I just cannot see a Beatles song being used for trivial things . . .” said Andy Bonnell, a Beatles fan from Liverpool, in a post to one website. A Dutch fan said that if Lennon was still alive he would be an advocate of washable cotton nappies.

Angela Natividad, co-editor of adrants.com, which comments on campaigns, said: “For people who feel the political connection with Vietnam, it comes off as kind of a callous action. The Beatles draw religious feelings.”

A spokeswoman for Apple Corp, the Beatles’ parent company in London, said: “It is out of our hands. The lyrics belong to Sony.” A spokesman for McCartney declined to comment.

Procter & Gamble has declined to say how much it paid for the song but it has increased the advertising budget for Luvs by 20%. Advertising industry insiders say the rights to the song will have cost at least £100,000.

This is not the first time Beatles songs have been reinterpreted for advertising but it is the product that has incensed the fans this time. A version of Help! was used in an American car commercial in 1985 while an insurance firm used a version of When I’m Sixty Four sung by Lennon’s son Julian. An American retail chain uses Hello Goodbye, rewritten as Hello Good Buy, in its advertising.

See how the Beatles song was used in the All You Need Is Luvs advert

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