Strawberries and cream ad banned... as it’s junk food

TRANSPORT chiefs have been forced to scrap an advert for Wimbledon featuring strawberries and cream – because it violated rules on fatty foods.

A ban on junk food adverts across London’s transport network came into force in February in a drive to combat childhood obesity. Banned foods include breakfast cereals, yoghurts, cakes, pizza, bread and sausages – and cream.

A number of advertising posters commissioned by Transport for London have been banned for breaking the rules.

They were edited or removed at a cost of £16,155, according to a Freedom of Information request by the Spectator magazine. One was an advert on the Tube’s District Line for the Wimbledon tennis tournament, featuring strawberries and cream. A TfL contractor wrote in an internal email: ‘There are some strawberries and cream by Wimbledon. Can we just remove the cream?’

Other adverts which were blocked included an image of popcorn at Hampstead Heath station, curry in Brick Lane and a Nice biscuit which had been digitally altered to look like a bus.

The controversial TfL policy was backed by Mayor Sadiq Khan and celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Christopher Snowdon, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, told the Daily Telegraph the ban extends beyond just junk food, adding: ‘As a result, TfL has had to spend thousands of pounds airbrushing perfectly harmless images to comply with its own puritanical rules.’