Cage and free range go egg to egg

Tesco has become the first major retailer to promote cage and free range eggs in the same advertising campaign.

Whole page advertisements in magazines and national newspapers offer the consumer a bold choice: “Eggs. Value for 52p. Or Finest Free Range for £1.95. Tricky. It’s six of one. And half a dozen of the other”.

TV ads go even further. They suggest that consumers might buy value eggs for cooking but choose free range as a breakfast treat.

The company—the biggest retailer of eggs in the country—says it is simply using eggs as an example of the range it offers to customers.

A further nine ads in the series features other products like carrots and potatoes. The mushroom ad says that the cheapest line available might be mis-shaped but is fine for casseroles. But suggests the best quality mushrooms would be used for other purposes.

“This is quite a new way of talking about products,” a Tesco spokesman told the Ranger. “But we believe it is a very honest approach. We simply want to highlight what a wide choice is available to the Tesco shopper.”

But clearly the campaign represents a departure in egg promotion. It assumes that the consumer already clearly understands the issues between the two types of eggs. The danger for free range sales is that the ads dramatically highlight the price difference between the two options. In fact the “Six of one, half a dozen of the other” line seems to suggest that there really is no issue, except price.