In
contrast, the ASA ruled last month that the word 'bloody' is an
offensive word.
The poster for Magners cider, which appeared on underground
trains, showed a photograph of a man in an orchard. Beneath the
headline 'Feck off bees' was a quote attributed to an orchard
keeper: "We have beehives. The beekeepers come and they leave the
bees here, in the open orchards. I like to walk by the lake at
lunch. The bees buzz my bald patch. We need the bees for
pollination. Personally, I don't like bees."
A person complained that the phrase 'feck off' was offensive,
especially because it appeared on a poster and could therefore be
seen by children.
Wm Magners Ltd said the claim 'Feck off bees' was not intended
to offend but was intended to be true to the storyteller, an
orchard keeper in his sixties, and was merely a mild rebuff to the
bees. The company argued that the image was "meditative and did not
seek to shout or be upsetting in any way," according to the
ruling.
Magners argued that the term 'feck' had been in usage since the
1800s and, in Ireland, the term was used in informal, everyday
colloquial conversation with different meanings. It said it could
be used to mean 'to steal', 'to throw' or 'to leave
hastily'.
The ASA noted Magners' comments about the use of the word 'feck' in
Ireland.
"We considered that the use of the word 'feck' in Britain had
been popularised by TV programmes such as Father Ted. We also
considered that the tone of the ad was not aggressive or
threatening," it said.
"We considered that the term 'feck' was unlikely to be seen as a
swearword and the poster was therefore unlikely to cause serious or
widespread offence to adults and was not unsuitable for a medium
where it could be seen by children," ruled the ASA.
The ASA concluded that there was no breach of decency rules.
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