Yahoo News Comedian Ed Gamble says Tube posters 'way beyond their value' after swapping unhealthy hot dog for cucumber
Comedian Ed Gamble has said his London show Tube posters are “making way beyond their value” after he was forced to swap a picture of a hot dog for a cucumber when TfL chiefs told him it fell foul of their healthy eating rules.
The Off Menu podcast host was pictured with a greasy, sauce-covered sausage on billboards for his show Hot Diggity Dog.
But when posters for his five night 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”.
The comedian told the BBC he felt “neutral” towards the TfL rule and was delighted to get to choose what to replace the banned banger with.
He told the Today programme: “The posters are making way beyond their value now. This is the first time I get to be on a sensible radio 4 show - this is a big moment for me.
He continued: “I’m always a fan of people taking responsibility with advertising and what they advertise.
“If I really disapproved of the rule I wouldn’t have resubmitted the poster with the cucumber in it. I’m following the rules. I’m a stickler.
“To be honest with this whole thing I just quite enjoyed deciding what to replace the hot dog with. To me it’s just been a lot of fun.”
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 and sugar are not allowed to be displayed on the Underground and Overground or on buses and bus shelters.
Gamble left in the mustard and ketch-up stains from the original poster but to obey the rules he added the cucumber at the bottom of the advert.
He joked: “Someone else made it clear to me that what it actually looks like, which might be worse for TfL, is that I have already eaten the hotdog completely and decided to leave all the vegetables.”
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.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan previously announced the rules would help tackle the "ticking time bomb" of child obesity in the capital.
Research estimated the policy had directly led to 94,867 fewer cases of obesity than expected (a 4.8 per cent decrease), 2,857 fewer cases of diabetes, and 1,915 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease.
“The posters are making way beyond their value now. This is the first time I get to be on a sensible radio 4 show - this is a big moment for me.
“I’m always a fan of people taking responsibility with advertising and what they advertise. If I really disapproved of the rule I wouldn’t have resubmitted the poster with the cucumber in it. I’m following the rules. I’m a stickler.
He added: “To be honest with this whole thing I just quite enjoyed deciding what to replace the hot dog with. To me it’s just been a lot of fun.
“Someone else made it clear to me that what it actually looks like, which might be worse for TfL, is that I have already eaten the hotdog completely and decided to leave all the vegetables.”
