A theatre show has had to scrap a £5,000 TfL advertising campaign because it had a cake in it

‘Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding’ is a name that may or may not ring a bell. But it is, on the quiet, a huge cult hit. A dinner theatre comedy that immerses you in a chaotic Italian American wedding, it’s been running in some form or other since 1985. It’s played in over 200 cities worldwide. It ran in Vancouver for 14 years. And as it returns to the UK for a stint at the West End’s Wonderville venue, you’d think the producers would have the advertising for it down pat.

Alas no: ‘Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding’ is probably the first instance of the marketing campaign for a stage play falling foul of TfL’s 2019 ban on adverts promoting ‘the consumption of high fat, salt and sugar foods’. And that’s essentially because its original advert (see below) involved either a truly colossal wedding cake covered in normal-sized people, or a normal-sized wedding cake covered in tiny people.

Either way, eating the entire cake would clearly be extremely dangerous to these individuals, though whether it’s really promoting sugary treats in such a way as is liable to lead to child obesity – the logic behind the ban – is questionable. However, rules are rules and the ad campaign was scrapped, with the company reportedly splashing out another £5,000 for new, blessedly cake-free posters.

Clearly this incident is not going to derail the show’s decades-long success story, but hopefully other dinner theatre shows planning to advertise on the Tube will take care to only highlight their more nutritionally balanced courses.

‘Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding’ is at Wonderville, until Nov 17.

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