Comedian Ed Gamble swaps hot dog for cucumber over Tube ad rule

Comedian Ed Gamble has swapped a hot dog for a cucumber in his adverts on London’s Underground network.

The podcast host used the fast-food item in an advert for his stand-up tour Hot Diggity Dog.

Transport for London (TfL) does not allow foods high in fat, sugar and salt to be advertised on its network.

A spokesperson for TfL said: “Following a review of the advert, we advised that elements would need to be removed to ensure it complied with our policy.”

‘Career highlight’
In a post on Instagram, Gamble, who co-hosts the Off Menu podcast and is a judge on the Great British Menu, described the incident as a “career highlight”, adding: “Eat your greens, Kids!”

Despite removing the hot dog from the advert, his team kept the ketchup and mustard.

Gamble said: “I actually don’t have a problem with the TfL regulations, they make sense to me.

“But the new posters promote something way more harmful – the idea that cucumbers pair well with ketchup and mustard. I’m not sad to have to remove the hot dog, it was only featured on the poster because I wanted to eat during the photoshoot.

“Hopefully it’s not too late to change the title of the show to Cu Diggity Cucumber?”

The ban on junk food advertising across London’s public transport network came into force in 2019 and spans the Underground and Overground, as well as buses and bus shelters.

It was brought in by City Hall to help tackle child obesity rates in the capital.

TfL’s policy requires all companies to provide the nutritional information of items featured in their adverts.

In July, an advert that featured a wedding cake was banned from the TfL network because it was seen to promote “foods high in fat, salt and sugar”.