Burger King cleared over 'swear word' adverts

A Burger King campaign suspected by consumers of using "king" as a reference to a swear word has been cleared by the advertising watchdog.

The three posters and internet ad drew 52 complaints for using the phrases "King tasty", "King delicious" and "King great".

The internet audio ad featured a conversation that began: "Oh officer don't give us a ticket, I was just getting some king lunch," with the officer replying: "I can see that and it looks king good."

Among the complaints were objections that the ads were offensive and unsuitable for children.

Burger King said it was "surprised and disappointed" that the campaign had caused offence.

The campaign's purpose was to promote a new burger, inserting the word king from the brand name.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) acknowledged that some readers might infer that the word "king" also represented a swear word.

But it added: "Although we considered that the ads were likely to be seen as distasteful to some, because they did not include any explicit bad language we concluded that they were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence."

It added that most children were unlikely to associate the burger image with bad language and concluded that the ads were unlikely to cause harm because they did not feature an explicit swear word.