25 August 2008
Cape Town — It's the context that counts, says the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in dismissing a complaint against a GrandWest billboard advert on the M5 highway in Cape Town.
A consumer complained that the words, Four King Fantastic, across the billboard were offensive, as an Afrikaans-speaking person would read them as "f***ing".
The advert depicts a man smoking a cigar, holding playing cards. Four "king" cards appear on either side of him.
GrandWest Casino submitted that the billboard referred to a winning combination in cards, namely "four of a kind".
The ASA said it accepted that people who read the phrase might understand the play on words. However, the use of the phrase had to be evaluated in the context of the advert as a whole to determine whether or not it was offensive.
The dictionary meaning of each word used in the advert was not vulgar. Also, the phrase clearly referred to a game of poker where a player could have four of a kind.
The intention of the advert was clearly to attract people interested in gambling and who would understand the reference. Furthermore, the billboard was written in English and was clearly intended to be communicated in English.
It would be unfair and unreasonable for advertisers to be limited to not using certain words or phrases simply because people from another language might twist it into a vulgar slang word or phrase.
While some might detect a subtle double meaning, there was no vulgar word depicted on the billboard and the content was perfectly suitable and neutral in the gambling context, said the ASA.
In a previous ruling, the ASA had considered the phrase "Now that's not Kak", and had ruled that the English meaning of "not bad" was generally regarded as less offensive.
The context in which the word appeared, as well as the profanity of the particular word, was significant in determining its impact.
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