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 them to a national standard, and then marketed 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.[1]
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 and also featuring Patricia Hayes and Pat Coombs that ran for six years from 1965 to 1971. Other slogans included "Happiness is egg-shaped",[2] "Eggs are cheap", "Eggs are easy" and "Eggs are full of protein".[3][4][5]
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.[1][6]