Let them eat cake (egg-free of course)

I suppose everyone has heard that the attempt to re-run the advertisements with the slogan "go to work on an egg" has been "scotched" (boiled or scrambled, even) by the UK's broadcast advertising clearance centre? The slogan was invented 50 years ago (hence the failed plan to have an anniversary campaign) and from 1965 to 1991 was used in a long series of TV advertisements, featuring Tony Hancock among others, exhorting us to have a healthy breakfast.

After "lengthy debate", the standards authority decided that the campaign failed to comply with its code: “Eating eggs every day goes against what is now the generally accepted advice of a varied diet. We therefore could not approve the ads for broadcast.” The egg information service offered to add a line to the adverts saying that eggs should be eaten as part of a varied diet, but the compromise was rejected.

The novelist Fay Weldon, who helped to create the campaign, is quoted as saying “I think the ruling is absurd. “We seem to have been tainted by all the health and safety laws. If they are going to ban egg adverts then I think they should ban all car adverts, because cars really are dangerous, and bad for the environment. It’s like banning any films that had actresses smoking cigarettes. Somehow I don’t think eggs are quite in the same category as cigarettes and other dangerous substances.”

You can see the adverts, and find out why eating eggs is good for you (as part of a varied diet, I add hastily), at the "Go to work on an egg" anniversary website. You can also sign an online petition to support the re-runs. The cynical side of me wonders how much of all this is a publicity stunt and how much of it is genuinely a result of a cracked, or even addled, decision.

Comments

[James]

I really enjoyed this post, Maxine, and agree with Fay Weldon that the 'ruling' is absurd - what about all those junk food adds... etc.? Just crazy (not that I'm a fan of an eggy breakfast, mind you, but I wouldn't object to advertising about it).

[CFR]

I think they were quite stupid not to accept that compromise and it reeks of hypocrisy and double standards. Only this week I saw a KFC ad and it didn't have any small print/voice to say that eating that stuff every day was not a good idea; although I'm certain that coated fried chicken, fries, coleslaw, beans and sugar-laden Pepsi would not provide a sufficiently varied diet if eaten everyday!

[Maxine]

Thanks for the lovely comments! James, you have the disinct look of a man who needs the full monty to keep going till lunchtime, though! (You are not overweight in the least, far from it, you just look as if you need to have that fuel.)

Yes, CFR, I quite agree -- I am not an egg person myself but having a vegetarian teenage daughter who needs her nutrients, I am only too relived that she's recently taken to eating omelettes -- a protein variety for the usual quorn and cheese. And don't get me on junk food;-)

[Susan]

I think nature has prepared us very well to consume quantities of eggs. The industry also seems to have addressed much of the cholesterol concern by adjusting the hens' diet. I buy eggs labelled 'Omega 3' which are purported to be an excellent source of polyunsaturates and Vitamin E. But, never mind, there's not much wrong with plain old eggs either.

[Peter]

The UK's broadcast advertising clearence center can suck controversy from an innocuous campaign as a weasel sucks eggs.
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Peter]

Umm, make that "clearance," if you please.

[Maxine]

and centre ;-)

[Peter]

In re center/centre, my lengthy presence in the United States is an extenuating circumstance. I find myself spelling color and humor without the u, and "zee" comes more naturally to me than the infinitely more euphonious "zed." I do blanch (or blench), though, when my sister refers to our mother as "Mom" rather than the correct "Mum."
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Maxine]

Sorry for my pedantry, especially as I write plenty of typos (through typing too quickly and pressing "post" just as I spot I missed a letter). I mentioned "center" just as a copyediting point, really -- as you cite the "UK's broadcast advertising clearance centre" as its title, therefore it would be spelt the UK way -- Just as i would write the Centers for Disease Control, as it is a title. I was striving for a little irony but it probably reads pedantic instead, sorry.