Ban on egg TV ad was right

By: Dean Best - 20 June 2007 15:10

The ban of a return for a TV commercial promoting the consumption of eggs has caused something of a furore here in the UK today (20 June).

A debate has raged in the country’s newspapers and on its airwaves over whether the ban on the 1950s ad was correct in following today’s nutritional guidelines – or whether it smacked of a petty following of the rules.

The just-food office has advocates on both sides of the debate but your correspondent believes the flak directed at the watchdog is misguided.

Times have moved on since the 1950s – and rightly so. Today, we know more about the importance of a balanced and varied diet; to allow an ad that promoted eating an egg a day to return to UK screens would serve to undermine the work that has gone on to convince consumers to eat more healthily.

Bemoaning the watchdog’s decision is a nostalgic trap UK consumers should not fall into.

Comments on this blog post

Carrying on with the general theme expressed by the actor Ray Winstone in another "food" television ad, "Im not going to tell you what to eat, your old enough to decide for yourself". Surely we are capable of deciding if an egg a day is healthy for us or not, and more than capable of working out that eating 20 eggs a day is not good for us, come on grant us with having some common sense. We are told to be sensible, law abiding, blah blah blah then in the next breath we're treated like plebs who don't know our right from our left! I'd rather see a ban on the hundreds of ads for food products that are obviously unhealthy, than banning an advert for an egg that is about as natural and good for you as it gets, short of eating the chicken it came from, no preservatives, additives, e numbers there!! Nanny state what an understatement.

Joanne Youl, United Kingdom