ASA approves new French Connection ads
The latest advertising for French Connection, featuring the word “fcuk”, will not be banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, despite provoking eight complaints.
The ASA recommended that the independent ASA Council, which adjudicates on controversial campaigns, should not investigate these particular ads, devised by GGT.
One poster execution shows a man wearing a T-shirt with the words “French Connection Me”, and the other shows a woman with the same words on her top. Both ads have the word “fcuk” printed in small letters in the top right hand corner. A magazine ad has a male and a female model in T-shirts saying “French Connection Someone” with “fcuk” at the bottom of the ad.
An ASA spokesman says: “It was so obscure, it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.”
French Connection was forced to drop earlier advertising, which featured slogans such as “fcuk fashion”, after the ASA ruled the word fcuk – an acronym for French Connection UK and now its registered trademark – could be misread.
In a speech at last week’s outdoor conference StreetTalk Madrid, GGT creative director Trevor Beattie said: “The campaign was never meant to be read as ‘Fcuk the ASA’.”
