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A Lame Eggscuse

• Kim Lenaghan
• 22 Jun 07, 09:21 AM

I was barely out of nappies when that late, great, grumpy, genius Tony Hancock exhorted the nation to ‘Go to work on an egg’. Despite being but a tiny tot I still have an extremely clear recollection of that cleverly conceived slogan by novelist Fay Weldon, herself but a cub copywriter for a London ad agency. Indeed I can hear it now, with its catchy little tune, playing in my head….”Go to work on an egg”….

So here we are forty odd years on and, nostalgia being the wonderful thing that it is, The Egg Information Service had wanted to screen the fondly remembered ad celebrating the finest hour of the oeuf, to mark its 50th birthday. That was until the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre, which regulates advertising standards and practice, blocked it on the grounds that it did not comply with Ofcom rules about promoting a varied diet. I say what a pile of chicken pooh.

I will admit that as nutritional awareness has developed over the last half century the humble egg has fallen in and out of favour, depending on which research study you read. However, what cannot be disputed is that an egg is completely natural. It has no preservatives, or added salt and sugar. It comes out of the rear end of a chicken and goes straight into the pot with very little interference in between. Indeed these days, because we are so aware of the shocking treatment of battery hens, we’re even eating organic free range eggs. And while we’re on the subject of chickens….you can turn on your tv at any hour of the day and night and see ads for every kind of processed, preservative laden, potentially life threateningly unhealthy (see Morgan Spurlock’s ‘Supersize Me’) fast food. Whilst it doesn’t actually say in the voice over “eat me every day” the implication is clear. Or what about breakfast cereal, which is often loaded with salt. Logic would dictate that if we eat breakfast daily then manufacturers spending millions on advertising would like us to start every morning with their particular bowl of goodness. So why not say “Go to work on an egg”. What’s the difference?

I could go on and on, but really the point I’m making is this. None of these things are bad in moderation, and even if they are surely we, as free thinking individuals, should have the right to choose whether we eat them or not. Let us watch the ads and decide for ourselves whether we want a lunch that’s ‘chicken, lickin good’ or an egg and onion sandwich. We don’t need some bureaucratic ‘big brother’ to tell us, and having a boiled egg with toasted soldiers for breakfast is hardly an issue of taste and decency.

So, in an attempt to champion the cause, I am now off to start my day with a healthy poached egg on toasted wheaten.

PS: How do you make a poached egg naughty? Put it on a toasted muffin, top it with crispy fried bacon, finish it off with lashings of creamy Hollandaise sauce and you’ve shamefully transformed it into my very favorite breakfast – and the only one to make an Ulster Fry look like the weightwatcher’s special – Eggs Benedict. I fear the yolk could be on me with that one!

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