Hot dog ad ruled out for Tube
Comedian forced to swap sausage for cucumber after poster falls foul of TfL
A COMEDIAN has had to remove a picture of a hot dog from his London show Tube posters after transport chiefs told him it fell foul of their healthy eating rules.
Ed Gamble was pictured with a greasy, sauce-covered sausage on billboards for his show Hot Diggity Dog. But when posters for his fivenight residency at Hackney Empire were sent to TfL for display on the Underground he was told they did not comply with the network’s anti-junk food policy and would need to be “removed or obscured”.
Gamble, a judge on The Great British Menu and host of the The Off Menu podcast, swapped the banger for a cucumber to get round the ban.
He said: “TfL told me I couldn’t have a hot dog on my poster to promote my Hackney Empire shows in June.
“I guess I’m dangerous? So I’ve replaced it with a cucumber. Eat your greens, kids.”
A TfL spokesman said: “We welcome all advertising on our network that complies with our published guidance.
“Following a review of the advert, we advised that elements would need to be removed or obscured to ensure it complied with our policy.
“A revised advert is now running on the network and we are always happy to work with people to ensure adverts follow our policy.”
A ban on junk food advertising across London’s entire public transport network came into force in 2019. Posters for food and drink high in fat, salt or sugar are not allowed to be displayed on the Underground and Overground or on buses and bus shelters. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, left, said the rules would help tackle the “ticking time bomb” of child obesity in the capital. Analysis by the University of Sheffield and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2022 suggested that the restrictions had helped prevent almost 100,000 obesity cases. However, the rules have faced criticism for being too restrictive.