The Egg Marketing Board was an

agricultural marketing organization A marketing board is an organization created by many producers to try to market their product and increase consumption and thus prices. It can also be defined as an organization set up by a government to regulate the buying and selling of a certain ...

set up by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

government in December 1956 to stabilise the market for

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s due to a widespread collapse in sales. The Board purchased all the eggs produced in the UK, graded them to a national standard, and then

marketed Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

them to shops. Each eggshell was stamped with a small "lion" logo as a mark of quality that would be seen by the customer. Egg producers were paid according to the quality of their eggs, less a deduction based on the number of eggs sent to packhouses for administration and advertising.''"On this day, 21 June 1968: Egg board 'should be scrapped'"''
BBC News. Retrieved 22 June 2007. Slogans used by the board included ''"Go to work on an egg"'', introduced in 1957 in a £12 million advertising campaign and turned into a series of television advertisements starring

Tony Hancock Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, ...

Bernard Miles Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 190714 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th ce ...

and also featuring

Patricia Hayes Patricia Lawlor Hayes (22 December 1909 – 19 September 1998) was an English character actress. Early life Patricia Hayes OBE was born in Streatham,Dennis Barker, "Hayes, Patricia Lawlor (1909–1998)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biogra ...

and

Pat Coombs Patricia Doreen Coombs (27 August 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an English actress. She specialised in the portrayal of the eternal downtrodden female, comically under the thumb of stronger personalities. She was known for many roles on radio, ...

that ran for six years from 1965 to 1971. Other slogans included ''"Happiness is egg-shaped"'',Egg Marketing Board: Hancock on Eggs

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

database. ''"Eggs are cheap"'', ''"Eggs are easy"'' and ''"Eggs are full of protein"''. The Board closed down in 1971 and the lion mark was dropped. The lion mark was however revived in 1998 by the British Egg Information Service.''Lion Quality Mark''
British Egg Information Service. Retrieved 22 June 2007.

References

Standards organisations in the United Kingdom Agricultural marketing organizations Egg organizations Marketing boards 1956 establishments in the United Kingdom 1971 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1956 Organizations disestablished in 1971 Agricultural organisations based in the United Kingdom {{Agriculture-org-stub

See also

References