News you can trust since 1817

Glasgow Vietnamese noodle bar poster cleared by ad chiefs

An advert for a Glaswegian Vietnamese restaurant advertising a special ‘Phat Phuc’ menu for ‘greedy’ customers has been cleared by advertising chiefs.

Published: February 10, 2016
Categories: , ,

Two people complained after seeing various posters for the Hanoi Bike Shop eatery in the city’s town centre and railway stations.

The poster, with the silhouette of a buddha in a cloud, states ‘PHAT PHUC’ - advertising a ‘special’ set menu of four noodle courses for £15.95-a-head.

Hanoi

Text underneath read: “Get your noodle on! First Tuesday of every month four delicious noodle based dishes for £15.95’.

The complainants contacted the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) saying the ad was offensive as it featured a slogan, which when ‘spoken out loud sounded like a swear word’.

Bosses at the restaurant said that ‘Phat Phuc’ was the name of an event that had been running since March 2015 - and was also the name of some of its noodle dishes.

It said that ‘Phat Phuc’ in Vietnamese was pronounced ‘Fet Fook’ and meant ‘Happy Buddha’.

Bosses at the ASA agreed and said that despite the works sounding like ‘Fat F**k’, it could be used again.

Popeyes Scotland: Opening times and what's on the menu as chain opens first Scottish store

It said: “The ASA understood that the word ‘happy’ in Vietnamese was correctly spelt as ‘Phuc’ and although it was pronounced as ‘Fook’, we acknowledged that it sounded similar to the expletive ‘fuck’.

“However, we noted that the Hanoi Bike Shop sold Far Eastern cuisine, which both posters had made sufficiently clear.

“In the context of the posters, we considered that viewers who might have been offended by bad language were likely to recognise that ‘Phuc’ was from a reference to Southeast Asian language, was different from the expletive and would not necessarily be pronounced in the same way.

“We therefore, concluded that the posters were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.”

Winners of The Gin Cooperative Awards 2023 revealed - including Scotland's smallest distillery

The ASA said that children would be ‘unlikely’ to comprehend that ‘Phuc’ was a Vietnamese word, but also that they would be unlikely to ‘read or pronounce it as the expletive’.

It said some older kids might have realised it could be pronounced as ‘f**k’, but that it was not unsuitable for them to see the word ‘Phuc’.

It added: “We therefore concluded that the posters were not irresponsibly placed where children could see them.”

One of the world's largest whisky collections may be moving to Fife
Tags:

Let us know what you think

comments

Copyright ©2023 National World Publishing Ltd
Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy Policy
crossmenu linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram