Caution: risque content
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Back in January 2012 I posted a Bytes item (have I been doing it that long??) about swear words. The item contained a poem called Ode to the Four Letter Word and you can read that post by clicking on the following link:
The poem makes the point that although there are all sorts of alternative expressions and euphemisms for four letter words, offence is taken not to the action or body part but the word chosen to describe it. Excrete and shit (as a verb) mean exactly the same thing.
The last 2 lines of the poem are:
"Today not the act but the word is the test
Of the vulgar, obscene and impure"
Today, four letter words are not as shock-inducing as they once were. Just look at Hell’s Kitchen with Gordon Ramsay.
Instead, where people might previously have delicately referred to the “F word” and the “C word”, using those euphemisms, today the political incorrectness is applied to racist and discriminatory language, hence references to the “N word”.
I was remind of this by an item on news.com yesterday. Read it at:
By way of introduction for overseas readers, the Northern Territory (aka NT) is a huge federal territory in northern Australia famed for its outback desert landscapes, arid Red Centre and the iconic Uluru (Ayers Rock).
The Northern Territory has a tourism authority, as do most States and territories worldwide, and it is known as NT Tourism. It uses the following logo:
In a move that has angered the government and NT officials, an unknown group has begun a guerilla marketing campaign with the slogan “See you in NT", only it is written differently:
The group has a website called “NT Official” which it uses to sell t-shirts, singlets and stickers decorated with the slogan: “See You in the NT - The top end, different from the bottom end.”
According to an NT Official media statement, the aim is to "bring attention to the unique Northern Territory as an ideal destination for the young or young at heart.”
According to Tourism NT, the government intends to launch legal action, not because of the risqué content of the message but that their logo has been appropriated without consent and without attribution.
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Some similar plays on words . . .
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French Connection United Kingdom, usually abbreviated to FCUK, has been causing controversy for years.
The business began in the UK and was originally named French Connection after the film of the same name, which had been released shortly before. In faxes passing between Hong Kong and London, the faxes were headed “FCHK” and “FCUK”. The company, with a limited marketing budget, saw the potential, renamed itself French Connection UK and began advertising as FCUK, usually in lower case. It created notoriety and brought the company to widespread public attention. In New York, the ads were banned from taxi roofs; in London the company has had to submit advertising copy to the standards body and its recent slogan – “kinky bugger” – has been banned.
It hasn’t stopped FCUK using slogans such as:
cool as fcuk
too busy to fcuk
GUARANTEED fcuk
I've got my f, c and k, all i need is u
FCUK all night long
To announce the biggest French Connection shop to open, a full page ad was taken out in a UK paper proclaiming “The World's Biggest FCUK”.
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Honourable (dishounourable?) mentions:
Britney Speers, 2009 single
"If You Seek Amy"
"If You Seek Amy"
Van Halen,1991 album
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