When bacon sellers put on a show of international bonhomie at the Provision Trade Federation annual dinner on Tuesday, behind the polite smiles will be a deep-seated feeling of anger and frustration. For as overseas sellers sit down with their UK colleagues, many will be gritting their teeth. The reason? The Meat and Livestock Commission's intention to appeal against the ASA ruling on what it insists was its "thought provoking" pigmeat ad. This, to the horror of shoppers and traders alike, showed a shot of a happy sow feeding a litter of piglets, with the headline: After she's fed them, she could be fed to them'. To say the ad incensed the Dutch and Danes is an understatement. But it also upset many bacon sellers in Britain and drew protests from multiple customers.Yet even though the ASA has upheld complaints about it, the issue still hangs menacingly over the bacon trade as a result of the MLC's decision to appeal. This magazine believes the ad was inflammatory and ill conceived. But before the pig sector's fanatical fringe reach for the telephone, we fully support an aggressive approach on behalf of the UK industry. And we applaud other MLC efforts in this direction. But there's aggression and there is crass stupidity. The last thing our beleaguered producers need at the moment are ads which rebound and hit consumption, thus damaging the whole market. And the episode had an unfortunate twist on Wednesday. Listeners to BBC Radio Four's Today programme were treated to a sparring match between MLC and Danish executives ­ just as they were tucking into their low fat spread on toast. Hardly the ideal early morning ad for an item striving to recapture its once formidable lead in the breakfast products market. The agrifood chain's great and good who, while saying little publicly, have privately condemned the ad to me, must persuade the MLC to drop its appeal. Then, everyone can get on with selling aggressively, but without scaremongering. And that ad can finally be dumped in the marketing dustbin where it belongs. Clive Beddall, Editor {{OPINION }}

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