"Go to work on an egg" was an

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...

used by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Egg Marketing Board The Egg Marketing Board was an agricultural marketing organization set up by the British government in December 1956 to stabilise the market for eggs due to a widespread collapse in sales. The Board purchased all the eggs produced in the UK, graded ...

during the 1950s and 1960s as part of more than £12 million it spent on advertising, including a series of television adverts starring the comedian

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, ...

and actress

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 ...

in 1965. The commercials were created by British director,

Len Fulford Leonard Alfred Fulford (11 November 1928 – 27 November 2011) was a British commercial photographer and director, with a specialty for photography of still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inan ...

. The proposition was that having an

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 ...

for

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

was the best way to start the working day. Author

Fay Weldon Fay Weldon CBE, FRSL (born Franklin Birkinshaw; 22 September 1931 – 4 January 2023) was an English author, essayist and playwright. Over the course of her 55-year writing career, she published 31 novels, including ''Puffball'' (1980), '' The ...

helped to create the campaign, and is supposed to have come up with the slogan. The concept of toast "soldiers" with boiled eggs seems to have been popularised, or possibly invented, for the 1965 series.Toast Soldiers
Foods of England In 2007, plans to rebroadcast the original television adverts were rejected by the

Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) was a non-governmental organisation which until the end of 2007 pre-approved most British television advertising. The work of the BACC has been taken over by Clearcast. BACC approval was applied bo ...

, which observed that the adverts did not suggest a varied diet. The adverts were instead made available on an anniversary website.

References

External links

Go to work on an egg - 50th anniversary website

British advertising slogans British cuisine Eggs (food) Eggs in culture 1950s neologisms {{advertising-stub