Provider navigation: Summary
AAP
ABC
National
Photos
Monday March 13, 02:24 PM
Brits not offended by 'bloody' Aussie ad
Research commissioned by the British Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) shows the British public are not fazed by the term "bloody", Tourism Australia says.
The BACC, Britain's television advertising regulator, last week banned the new $180 million Australian tourism campaign slogan: "So where the bloody hell are you?" from its screens, claiming the word was on its banned list.
ADVERTISEMENT
Tourism Australia managing director Scott Morrison said the BACC's own research six years ago found only three per cent of the British public considered "bloody" to be very offensive.
The survey found 86 per cent believed the phrase was quite mild or not considered swearing, and 85 per cent believed it was appropriate for the phrase to be seen after 9pm.
"These results demonstrate that the term bloody is the least offensive of all the terms put forward by the BACC ... and it begs the question why the term bloody was ever included in the list in the first place," Mr Morrison said.
"The research includes numerous other phrases which rightly should not be seen on anyone's television, but based on the findings of the BACC's own research, bloody is clearly not one of them."
Tourism Australia is appealing the decision.
Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, who is in Britain with Mr Morrison to launch the campaign, will meet the BACC and the Office of Communications this week in a bid to overturn the ban.
In her visit to the BACC, Ms Bailey will ask why a 1983 Foster's beer ad in which Paul Hogan is seen wandering around London and cheekily mentions the "bloody tower", and a 1998 ad for Toyota that had talking goldfish saying "bloody" were allowed to be shown.
But she admits having the ban overturned will be "a big ask".
"The chances of success are probably very slim but now I have found out about these other two ads, we'll see," she said.
"I'm just astonished that the same regulator has banned the same tagline in our ad."
In the meantime, an alternative version of the commercial with the phrase "so where the hell are you?", will be run on British television.
The uncut version will continue to be displayed on the web and will screen in cinemas.
Print versions will follow later in major travel publications.
Less than a week after it was first banned and then cleared for screening in the U.K., an Australian tourism ad featuring a bikini-clad girl asking prospective tourists "Where the Bloody Hell are you?" has been banned in Canada. Ironically, it wasn't the controversial question  — a line described as "warm, friendly and inviting" — that got the ad banned, but its opening: "We've poured you a beer." This line was ruled unacceptable by the Canadian regulator, as it refers to an unbranded beer.

Australian Tourism Minister Fran Bailey was "quite astonished" by the move but has thanked the Canadian government for providing free publicity for the ad, saying, "As far as this particular Canadian regulator is concerned, I'd love him to come out here and I'll buy him a beer and say thank-you."