As my Gran used to say

"Bloody's in the Bible, Bloody's in the Book, if you don't Bloody believe me, have a BLOODY look"

Efros

For once they get a single complaint and don't uphold it. Common sense from the ASA?

We also hear that Clarkson's truck driver joke was cleared by Ofcom. Them too?

Have they added something to the water this week?

A person complained. One person.

Get a life. Better yet,

feck off person!

"A person complained that the phrase 'feck off' was offensive, especially because it appeared on a poster and could therefore be seen by children."

Won't someone please think of the children! THE CHILDREN!

Makes it fecking easy to tell the children about the birds and the bees

One fecking person complained! How much fecking time has that fecking idiot wasted.

I'm going to write of and complain that I find Iceland ad's offensive to the eyes...

...is breathed by everyone in Kent.

Mines the one with Roger's Profanisaurus sticking out of the pocket

Ahhhhh, Father Ted.....many a happy time watching that. It was of course Father Jack who often said 'feck'.

...so the ASA should feck off. I fecking bet that there are already at least 10 fecking similar comments on the page already by the time this is fecking published (or not).

Feck off Asa, ye bunch of wee feckers.

No, true enough, I'd never say it quite like that in real life.... but anyone who's not a complete head-the-ball knows that most people, certainly under 30,in Ireland, North or South would use fuck and feck interchangeably.

Can't wait to see the new Scrumpy Jack "Fuck you <insert larger name>!" advert series.

Another prude (and likely beardy botherer) complaining about a word that looks like another.

As in FCUK (French Connection UK), it has the same letters they must mean FUCK....then again it explains why all the chavs "five finger discount" it, probably apply the same logic.

if less than 5% of the population complain, its a non complaint, if less than 30% of the population complain its a very low priority complaint

See I could save millions by avoiding investigating spurious complaints

Being from the Emerald Isle, Feck does indeed mean Fuck.

Nice one Magners :)

I wish the professional offence takers and PC 'eejuts would just feck orf and die.

who are the people who see feck as inoffensive, but are horrendously scarred by the word bloody?

Frack off, you fracking idiots.

Ahem.

...what a smeghead.

Does that mean that truck drivers are not all murdering feckers?!

"Being from the Emerald Isle, Feck does indeed mean Fuck.

Nice one Magners :)"

Snap. I for one find it hilarous that the change of a vowel turned an everyday word in Ireland into an everyday word throughout the UK.

It does mean fuck, but sure what odds?!

Feck/Fuck it!

I was always told that "Bloody" (when used as a curse, not "Of, characteristic of, or containing blood") was a contraction of "By our lady" (or similar) and therefore was sacrilegious.

ICBW, YMMV, etc, etc.

I agree with the lone complainer: it is obviously a replacement for a well-known Anglo-Saxon swearword and so should not be used in display advertising. The fact that it is in Father Ted is not an excuse: I have only seen FT after the watershed anyway.

when Father Jack went to the opticians, and had to read a chart provided by Chekoslovakia's foremost optical company:

FECK-ARSE Industries

kind of puts the word into context, doesn't it....

Does this mean I can tell my boss to Feck Off?

Reminded me of an old, very non-PC joke...

Bush, Blair and Michael Jackson on the Titanic. When it began to sink, Bush pushed his way to the front and demanded to be in a lifeboat as he was the president of the most powerful country in the world. As he and his aids were throwing the women and children off the boat, noble, fair-minded Blair said "But Mr. President, what about the children?" "F*** the children", came the reply. A voice belonging to a famous singer said "Have we got time?"

Having lived in Ireland I would also second the view that Feck was used in Ireland in place of Fuck, as in... Won't someone thing of the fecking children!

I agree. In this context it is quite obviously being used as a replacement for that other similar word and as such should not be used on a public advertising display.

If anyone can offer up another explanation as to how it is being used in this context in a non-offensive manner (although I do not belive there is one), please speak up...

ASA idiots.

Does "feckless" mean "chaste" then?

What the Frack is wrong with these frelling ned flanderses who complain about something like that.

@Stu Reeves

Even more annoying than the Iceland ads is that feckin' Gaviscon ad with the stupid bint flying a helicopter while a couple of 'firemen' hose down her gullet with a load of viscous gunk.

Paris. She just seems appropriate, somehow.....

It isn't... not in this context. In this context it means "to leave hastily", not as a substitute for a well known swearword. So the ASA is completely right.

In Ireland it's historically not meant as a substitute word, but is a word in its own right with its own meaning, however, of course a lot of people DO use it as a substitute word.

Careful now!

er... I think I'd like to call bollocks on that one.

Although if you spell it 'feic' you might convince a few more people. 'Feic' is the Irish verb 'to see.'

I've had a few conversations about this with Irish people in the 4 years or so I've been living in Dublin. Mainly in pubs, where it seemed most appropriate. But people do talk about being 'fecked out of the pub' for pouring themselves pints. This being a non-literal use, in the same way that when I tell someone to 'f off' I don't literally mean for them to go forth and multiply. I'm not that biblical.

Time for me to feck off - it's after pub o'clock. After all, who gives a fuck, really?

"In this context it means "to leave hastily", not as a substitute for a well known swearword"

Wha...?

"Feck off", when used to mean "leave hastily" has exactly the same meaning and origin as "fuck off", so do you mean the fuck in "fuck off" isn't a swearword either? I look forward to Magners trying to use that as an excuse.

After a lot of checking the only places which spout this continued crap are christian sites and other assorted moron sites.

But when did being totally wrong stop christians spouting crap...never

According to them SANTA = SATAN, Pagans copied the date of Xmas from the Christians and are trying to usurp their holy day, that SANTA/SATAN is trying to draw children away from Jesus....and on and on and on and on

I dont even need research funding to prove religious people especially christians are of a lower intellect than non religious types.

Was the ad being put up on billboards in Ireland? If I can find a language where mother-fucking cock-suckers happens to be the name of a pretty flower, can I splash it all over the UK on ads? And that "most people don't see it as a swear word" bit? Is there *anyone* in the UK who doesn't see "feck" as a substitute for "fuck", like "fcuk" but more pronouceable?

But yeah, that one complainant really needs to get out less.

Drink, Feck, Arse, Girls!

As for anything else, that would be an ecumenical matter.

... and starts playing game featuring a Yo-yo wielding caveman...

... gets hit by flying dagger...

FRAK!

Well, in that case, I love Santa . . .

Ooh, it's a SCYTHE . . .

Talking of annoying adds, I presume we'll see the last of 'Howard' after today's vote at HBOS?

As for the 'feck' thing; it is a swear word, no question. But the world is changing, and I think the ASA decision reflects this...

See, I said I could be wrong.

...to look up the history of Feck on Wikipedia, to check the statements made above. But I bet the IWF have blacklisted that page.

They should have printed 'Fup off you ye fuppin backstard bees' or something like that. That's in compliance with the No Swearing rule.

(Anyone who saw the Fr Ted episode about the missing whistle will know why.)

Apologies in advance, asterisks inserted to get past company 'profanity' filters...

Let's get one thing straight - feck and f*ck are NOT the same word, they are not used interchangeably.

The word 'feck' for them that need it to be explained again, means 'to steal', it is not a swearword, it never was and it never can be. You may well use it if you'd rather say feck than f*ck, and that's your choice, but their meanings are not the same and you certainly wouldn't say f*ck if you really meant feck.

Think duck and deck, or indeed think *sshole and grasshole and fub off the lof of ye.

Feck is used as a less offensive substitute for 'fuck' in Ireland. It is not always a suitable stand-in, though. For example, it would not be used as a verb replacement for 'to copulate'.

"Feck off", as used in the ad, is a *relatively* inoffensive way to say "go away" in Ireland.

So when Microsoft run an ad with a ffruistrated engineer snapping "fsck you" at a server that's not booting, is that a swear word? It is the literal truth, but he intends it as a venting of ire. I replace swearwords woith ridiculous things like "sugar butties" and people still know I'm swearing.

Any word can be a swearword, but there are some thyat are firmly established as being only swearwords. Fuck is one. I certainly can't think of any non-crass expression of it.

In this instance I'd say it all depended on the expression on the guys face. If he's looking angry or tense, then there could be a violence construed. But if he looks like he's enjoying the sun, then feck 'em all, he's clearly not intending to offend anyone.

Feck is used in more formal situations...

Ie you'd tell the taoiseach to feck off in the Dail or on TV, but anywhere else... it'd be @##@$!! 3$312!!

( in the interest of the non-Irish, this comment has been appropriately censored )

I always thought that words that were part of normal average persons speech pattern were not swear words. In the UK, b####r, b######s, f##k etc were considered swear words as they weren't part of normal evryday speech.

I've been to Eire, sitting in the pub or queueing in the post office, every other word I heard from the youngest person to the oldest was what I (being english) would consider to be a swear word but that is just how they speak.

To ban another race from speaking in their natural language would surely be racist.

Banning me from speaking or writing in another persons language must also be racist.

so feck the lot of them, they're all shite anyway

I LOVE MY BRICK!

That is all.