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Wicked Campers falls foul of the ad watchdog over ‘inappropriate’ slogans

Screen Shot 2014-04-22 at 11.52.12 AMFor the fourth time in less than a month Wicked Campers has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) over slogans painted on the sides of its vans.

The ASB upheld three separate complaints lodged against Wicked Campers relating to the slogans “Shut the f#ck up Donny“, “God I’m Fucking Awesome” and “I was in fuckin’ Nirvana dude. Dave Grohl“, with the ad watchdog ruling the slogans featured language inappropriate for an outdoor medium.

WickEarlier this month the brand was reprimanded by the watchdog for a slogan reading  “Does your asshole ever get jealous of the shit that comes out of your mouth?” and a the slogan reading “fat girls are harder to kidnap!” while at the end of last month the ASB upheld a complaint relating to the slogan “Get out ya tits and we’ll call it quits“. It has also been censured by the ASB for a Chuck Norris blowjob messagea pot smoking promo, “it’s better to be black than gay“,encouraging killing kangaroosa menstrual cycle joke and snogging an aboriginal.

The complaints against the three slogans where all identical, reading: “I was offended by the language sign written on the vehicle which contained offensive language that was visible to all members of the public including children.”

Wicked Campers no longer responds to complaints to the ASB, which was noted by the board during the ruling.

In relation to the first slogan, which featured a red Wicked Campers van with a cartoon image of two men and the text, “Shut the f#ck up Donny” on the side panel, the board noted it did “not use the word “fuck” in its entirety but has replaced the letter “u” with the symbol “#”” however despite dismissing a complaint in the past that did not use the F word in full, the board rule that as it is language directed at another person “in a manner that can be interpreted as a strongly aggressive tone which the Board considered is inappropriate for an outdoor medium with a broad audience including children”.

The board ruled similarly for the second slogan, “God I’m Fucking Awesome”, ruling “fuck is not appropriate for such an audience and that it is a word which most members of the community would consider offensive”, ruling the same for the third slogan “I was in fuckin’ Nirvana dude. Dave Grohl”.

Miranda Ward 

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