(no subject)

from the age:

Britain's Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) last week banned commercial TV's use of the word "bloody" from Tourism Australia's $180 million "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign.

The ban prompted an urgent flight to London by federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, who, amid a blaze of priceless publicity, complained the Poms had lost their sense of humour.

Ms Bailey emerged from talks in London with the BACC, the UK tourism minister and broadcasting standards officials to declare she had won a review of the ban.

[...]

The BACC will balance the desire to clear the harmless Australian advertisement against setting a precedent that would have other advertisers then pushing the envelope of offensive language.

The BACC currently lists "bloody" as its 27th ranked most offensive word, behind "crap" and just ahead of "God".

Other words on the BACC's current banned list include bastard (6th), bollocks (8th), shag (11th), spastic (15th), bugger (21st), sodding (24th) and Jesus Christ (25th).

What the hell? They have an ordered ranking of swear words? If you're like my office, the first thought you have is "where is this list? can I see it?". Here's the full report. It's quiet a lot of fun.

And yes, it contains work-unsafe language. But if you're reading a research report discussing the merits of the 'c' word, the 'm' word and the 'f' word, amongst many others, you know what to expect. Don't miss the illustration of the topography of bad language on page 12 - I reckon it would look good on a t-shirt.

Full report - PDF format