TfL Bans Poster For TONY N' TINA'S WEDDING in London Over 'Unhealthy' Wedding Cake

An advertisement for a West End play has been banned from the London Underground because it featured an “unhealthy” cake.

Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, an interactive comedy with food and dancing, is currently running at the Arcelormittal Orbit in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and will be playing at Wonderville from 15 July but the marketing team had to redesign the posters after they were banned by Transport for London (TfL).

The advertisement, which depicted the performers Ronnie Burden and Alabama Boatman on top of a Victoria sponge wedding cake covered in white icing, was considered to be in breach of TfL’s food and drink advertising policy.

According to The Sun, the advert breached TfL's strict obesity rules by promoting “the consumption of high fat, salt and sugar foods”.

The organisers of the production spent £20,000 on the campaign and had 200 posters printed but after its appeal failed, it had to spend an additional £5,000 to remove the cake from the poster.

Paul Gregg, who brought The Lion King to the Lyceum Theatre in 1996, branded the decision “ridiculous”. He told The Sun: “I never dreamt it would be a problem.

“We’ve now reached a point where a poster can be banned because it features a cake. It’s ridiculous and just makes everything hard work.”

A TfL spokesperson said: “We welcome all advertising on our network that complies with our published guidance. We are always happy to work with brands to help them follow our advertising policy.”

Additional Information

• The advert featuring the wedding cake was submitted to TfL’s advertising partner and was found not to comply with TfL’s advertising policy
• TfL’s advertising partner has since received an advert for the theatre production that complies with TfL’s advertising policy and is therefore able to run on the transport network
• It is recommended that brands make sure adverts follow our advertising policy before printing any advertising materials
• The TfL Advertising Policy can be found here: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-advertising-policy.pdf
• Further guidance for Food and Non-Alcoholic Drink advertising can be found here: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/policy-guidance-food-and-drink-advertising.pdf

Tony N' Tina's Wedding is currently running at the Arcelormittal Orbit in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and will be playing at Wonderville from 15 July