strip_tags() is not working on the_excerpt()

Hi all,

I’m trying to use the_excerpt() function to create a meta description tag based on each post.

The problem is that the_exceprt() wraps the content in <p></p> and also includes any other html formatting added to the post.

I tried using the php strip_tags() function to remove the tags, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

<meta name=”Description” content=”<?php strip_tags(the_excerpt()); ?>” />

Does anyone have any idea how I can get this to work?

Thanks!
Erik