Egg Council

AZTEC THEATRE

egg council creepTwo years ago, I enlisted you, the reader, to go forth and locate the egg council commercials that the classic “You’d better run, egg!” scene from “Homer the Great” was referencing. Well, reader James e-mailed me with the news that he located two of them (maybe the only two?) on AdForum.com.

I can’t embed the videos so you’ll have to click the links:

Here’s a minute-long commercial featuring an egg being sent to the electric chair.

And here’s a 30-second one that starts the same way, but features different types of eggs.

A couple observations: the eggs are noticeably shorter than the guards, and they have no legs; they’re not normal-sized people cosplaying as eggs with normal legs like the Egg Council creep. Secondly, the brand is “California Egg Commission,” not the Egg Council, which appears to be made up.

Boy it feels good to finally have closure on this pressing issue. Thank you, James.

AZTEC THEATRE

egg council creepHere’s a classic scene from “Homer the Great,” where Homer attempts to save Lenny’s life by stomping on an egg sandwich, in order to get into the Stonecutters:

Homer: I saved your life! That egg sandwich could have killed you by cholesterol.

Lenny: Pfft, forget it, Homer. While it has been established that eggs contain cholesterol, it has not yet been proven conclusively that they actually raise the level of serum cholesterol in the human blood stream.

Homer: So one of those Egg Council creeps got to you too, huh?

Lenny: Aw, you’ve got it all wrong, Homer. It’s not like that.

A man in an egg costume creeps, then runs, away.

Homer: You’d better run, egg!

The Simpsons Archive explains the reference:

+ California Egg Council commercial {ert}
– some humorous TV ads put out by the Council depict eggs in prison running off with glee when they’re set free

I have a very, very vague memory of a commercial with people in egg costumes, so I searched for it on YouTube, home of a million old commercials for those of us whose memories have been hijacked by Madison Avenue madmen. Thus far I have been unsuccessful in locating it. But I refuse to admit defeat.

That’s why I’m enlisting you, hypothetical reader, to go forth and find these commercials, so that the world will know that the Egg Council is a real threat. Here’s what I’ve managed to learn from five minutes of AltaVista-searching:

  • I have no idea if these commercials aired nationally or just in California. Did you non-Californians get those stupid “California: It’s The Cheese” commercials?
  • The Egg Council is still around, apparently, and still making commercials.
  • There is also a California Egg Commission. How deep does the rabbit hole go?
  • In “Burns’ Heir,” Mr. Burns calls it the Egg Advisory Council. Same thing, right? How many Egg Councils can there be?
  • Here is some helpful information on egg

Let me know if you find anything via Twitter or e-mail.

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