Have you ever eaten a ‘dinner egg?’

For far too long, eggs have had a reputation as a breakfast food. Sure, people will on occasion have eggs as part of a main course for another meal, but those in the egg industry would like to see more of that.

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Ninja's Egg and Mushroom Pizza is one of the recipes shared as part of the American Egg Board's 'dinner egg' promotion. (American Egg Board)
Ninja's Egg and Mushroom Pizza is one of the recipes shared as part of the American Egg Board's "dinner egg" promotion. (American Egg Board)

For far too long, eggs have had a reputation as a breakfast food. Sure, people will on occasion have eggs as part of a main course for another meal, but those in the egg industry would like to see more of that.

In an effort to make eggs as more of a mainstream staple during all meals, the American Egg Board (AEB) has launched its “dinner egg” campaign.

"Eggs have been a breakfast staple for years, but why should the delicious and nutritious egg be confined to one meal? It’s time to change all that and our new spectacular marketing campaign does exactly that — it makes clear that the Incredible Egg is also here for dinner — from pizza, tacos, salad or sandwiches. We’re super EGGcited to help consumers explore the many ways and occasions for which they enjoy their eggs," said Anne Alonzo, president and CEO of the AEB.

AEB has devoted a special webpage to the dinner egg campaign. It includes a special video, a faux-documentary if you will, which is certainly good for a laugh or two. The video is also available on YouTube.

The webpage also includes plenty of recipes on how to prepare your dinner eggs.

About the video

In the video, you meet Tom and Tracy Smith, “dinner egg farmers.”

The two, on camera, marvel about how the chickens are laying eggs at night, and even show the barn, where the phenomenon occurred.

“We had so many eggs, since the eggs kept producing and Tom said ‘What’s for dinner?’ and I said, ‘You know what’s for dinner, Tom? Dinner eggs,” Tracy said.

Word got out, Tracy further said, and the whole dinner egg movement began.

“When we first got dinner eggs in stock, people thought it was kind of a novelty. They’d walk past and not give it a second look. It’s six weeks later and I can’t keep them in stock to save my life. These things are flying off the shelf, literally. It’s pandemonium,” Gene Henderson, manager of Jon’s Grocery, said on the video.

The Smiths go on to tell about some of the things you can make with dinner eggs.

I won’t spoil the rest of the tongue-in-cheek video; you’ll have to see for yourself this piece of marketing brilliance. Something AEB hopes will be an effective way to get people to rethink the versatility of eggs.

"Dinner Eggs are flipping people’s ideas about eggs, literally and figuratively. With this campaign, we hope to help consumers unleash new ways to enjoy the Incredible Egg from breakfast to dinner and everything in between,” Sofia Therios, AEB vice president of marketing, said in a press release.

What does ‘dinner’ mean to you?

I like the idea of a “dinner egg,” because to me, that means you can pretty much eat it any time after breakfast.

Growing up, “dinner” was always the noontime meal. Then, when I got to college, the dorm cafeterias referred to the evening meal as “dinner.” That really puzzled me and took a lot of getting used to. One upperclassman told me: “I just say lunch and supper. That way people know what you mean.” I took his advice, and all these years later, I almost never use the D-word, even though now I hear it used as a synonym for supper more often than I do as one for lunch.

Not to mention, the song lyrics “Get out of the way, Old Dan Tucker; You're too late to get your dinner,” just doesn’t sound right.

But “dinner egg” does sound right, and I hope this campaign is successful in motivating people to eat more eggs during the meals that follow breakfast.

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