Fifty years after Britons were implored to “Go to work on an egg”, an advertising watchdog has banned a revival of the campaign, saying that it breaches health guidelines.

Plans to mark the anniversary by broadcasting the original television advertisements featuring Tony Hancock have had to be called off.

The ban by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre, which vets television advertisements, was condemned as ridiculous yesterday by the novelist Fay Weldon, who used to work in advertising and helped to create the campaign.

“I think the ruling is absurd,” she said. “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.”

The advertising clearance centre, a government-backed watchdog, says that it blocked the campaign because eating an egg for breakfast every day was not a “varied diet”.

The slogan was introduced in 1957 by the British Egg Marketing Board. It was turned into a series of television adverts in 1965 and ran until 1971. The campaign featured Hancock in a series of sketches that included other slogans such as “eggs are cheap”and “eggs are full of protein”.

The campaign cost more than £12 million and its “Go to work on an egg” slogan is still remembered by millions. The British Egg Information Service, the successor to the marketing board, wanted to broadcast the ads to mark the 50th anniversary of the slogan and the red British lion mark.

However, all national television adverts must be approved by the advertising clearance centre, set up by Ofcom, the Government’s broadcasting standards watchdog, to enforce statutory codes of advertising standards. After lengthy debate it decided that the campaign failed to comply with its code.

The organisation said: “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. The compromise was rejected.

The egg information service said it was shocked by the ruling. It said eggs were a healthy food recommended by nutritionists and many other advertisers promote their products to be eaten every day, “so we are very surprised eggs have been singled out. There are no restrictions on the number of eggs people can eat, which was recently confirmed by the Food Standards Agency, and between five and seven eggs a week would be totally acceptable for most people.”

Cath Macdonald, a nutritionist with the egg information service, said: “Eggs are a great choice for all the family, providing plenty of vitamins and minerals including calcium for teeth and bones and vitamin A for growth and development.

“They are also relatively low in saturated fat and, with only 80Kcals per medium egg, there’s no need for dieters to avoid them either.”

The advertising clearance centre stood by its ban, saying: “Dietary considerations have been at the centre of the new rules for advertising and we felt these ads did not suggest a varied diet.”

The British Egg Information Service is showing the ads on its golden anniversary website: www.gotoworkonanegg.co.uk.

Food for thought

1957

Year slogan was launched

£12m

Cost of the campaign

78

Energy value in kilocalories of a medium egg

3%

Percentage of adult man’s energy requirement gained by eating one egg a day

Source: Times database

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