Dairy Crest has recruited John Lydon, better known as punk icon and Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, to appear in a new £5m ($9m) advertising campaign for its Country Life butter brand, which launches on Wednesday night.

The campaign follows a strong performance from the group’s food brands such as Clover and Utterly Butterly spreads and Cathedral City cheese in its first half, which offset a difficult period for its milk business. In a trading statement covering the 26 weeks to the end of September, the group said interim results would be in line with expectations.