'Sofa King Low' ad gets banned as everyone reads it three times to see the swear
Sofa King have had their advertising slogan kicked square in the pips by the ASA. The phrase "our prices are Sofa King Low" has now been blacklisted after nine years of trading. Of course, this banning only serves to show off the interpreted swear to a wider audience and, of course, acts as free advertising for Sofa King.
The Advertising Standards Authority have upheld a complaint that the catchphrase was 'offensive and unsuitable for general display'.
A statement from the ASA says: 'The ASA noted that the phrase ‘Sofa King Low’ used the advertiser’s company name but considered that it could be interpreted as a derivative of the swear word ‘f***’, which consumer research had found to be a word so likely to offend that it should not be used in ads at all, even when it was relevant to the name of a product.'
The watchdog added: 'They said complaints made to Northamptonshire Police in 2004 were not taken further by the Crown Prosecution Service and that no complaints had been made direct to them. They said the slogan simply used their company name to refer to pricing and that the words had not been changed or run together or punctuation used in a way that was intended to cause offence. They did not believe the slogan caused serious or widespread offence.'
Rumours abound that Sofa King will now relocate to Norwich and now use the strapline of 'Norfolk 'n' good'.
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