Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Egg Ads Deemed Harmful for Brits

Posted by Robyn Lee, June 20, 2007 at 8:00 PM

It's been 50 years since the British Egg Marketing Board promoted their unfertilized product by telling the public to "go to work on an egg". While its series of advertisements about the benefits of eggs was deemed appropriate in the 1950s, on Tuesday the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) banned the ads from being shown on TV because the ads do not promote a varied diet. Here's more explanation behind the ban from Guardian Limited:

A BACC spokesman said the issue was not whether a daily egg with your breakfast would be harmful; only that it should be served with fruit juice or toast.

"We are not questioning the effect it would have on your health," Kristoffer Hammer told GMTV this morning. "Our role is to ensure that advertising that goes on television is in compliance with the [Communications] act. It's quite clear from the act that they should be presented as part of a balanced diet."

You can sign a petition to vote for the airing of the ads.

Is the BACC afraid that the people watching these ads will think, "Gee, I guess I should eat loads of eggs and nothing else"? On the other hand, do people who watch ads for breakfast cereal think, "I should eat a bowl of cereal only if accompanied by fruit and toast because the ad told me to have a balanced breakfast"? In either case, some people may follow the ad, some will not. I'd like to believe that most people have enough common sense to figure out that an egg-only diet does not make for optimal body functioning. Aren't there more dangerous ads out there than a 50-year old campaign about eggs?

1 Comment | Tags: advertising, eggs, England