Embedding Flash

Why does it appear as code and not flash when I use the embed script below on my forum ?

I have removed the urls and inserted text just to demonstrate to you.

Please can anyone help, I am using the toast forums but they do not seem to be supporting

<embed width="300" height="26" src="UrlOfFlashFile" quality="high" wmode="transparent" flashvars="playlistfile=UrnOfXmlFile&configurationfile=UrnOfXmlFile" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>