Sorry, you’re not allowed to go to work on an egg 

21 June 2007 tbs.pm/121

Do not go to work on an egg

It really seems to be beyond the bounds of reason for the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) to stop the British Egg Information Service (BEIS) re-running the famous Tony Hancock “Go to work on an egg” ads to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Lion Mark, the TV commercials campaign and the launch of the classic slogan.

Eggs had come off rationing in 1953, but it wasn’t until 1957 that the British Egg Marketing Board was set up to ensure egg quality and availability. The Lion Mark was introduced the same year, as was the ad campaign. By 1960, egg consumption in the UK reached almost 5 eggs per person per week.

But fancy banning the commercials today. I mean, come on. There is so much crap on TV these days that a series of iconic 50-year-old TV commercials featuring a major British comedy figure and co-written by one of the country’s leading writers (that would be novelist Fay Weldon, formerly a copywriter at Ogilvy, Benson & Mather and credited with coming up with the “Go to work on an egg” slogan) would have been a welcome relief. Are you telling me that classic commercials from half a century ago are more dangerous than an episode of Big Brother or a modern McDonalds commercial? Oh, really.

At the very least, surely the BACC could have allowed the ads to be run with a strapline saying how eggs were fine when eaten as part of a varied diet? That, after all, was the watchdog’s problem with them. But no, they just have to ban them outright. Even when, contrary to some televised comments, at least one of the ads (Sold his soul) shows, in the final slogan shot, eggs in the context of other breakfast foods in a frying pan, namely bacon and sausages (both of which are probably more ‘dangerous’ than eggs).

Just think of all the other products that are far more dangerous than eggs, yet are freely advertised. Cars, for example, as Ms Weldon pointed out in this context, are not only dangerous to people but to the environment too.

You can see one of the classic ads on our Small Screen site, here.

In addition the complete set is available from the Go to work on an egg site where you can watch the ads and sign an online petition.

I do hope the petition succeeds. This is surely a soluble problem.

The only upside of the whole story, I suppose, is that we are spared the obnoxious experience of seeing a series of classic commercials insensitively zoomed and cropped when they’re already on the borders of broadcast quality – as viewers may have noticed on certain news channels running the story…

A Transdiffusion Presentation

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Richard G Elen Contact More by me

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Liverpool, Thursday 28 March 2024