A Vietnamese noodle restaurant has been cleared by the advertising watchdog after complaints over a slogan that included the words “Phat Phuc”.
Hanoi Bike Shop in Glasgow was investigated after two people objected to the restaurant's posters that were seen on trains in October and November.
One of the complaints examined by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) was that when spoken, the slogan sounded like a swear word and that it was also “inappropriate” to be on public display around children.
However, the company said “Phat Phuc” in Vietnamese was pronounced “Fet Fook” and meant “Happy Buddha”.
Advertising firm Primesight also added the promotional material was suitable for outdoor display as “Phuc” did not sound like a swear word when pronounced correctly.
The ASA decided not to uphold the complaints.
The ruling 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 "f***".
“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.”
