'Four-letter' ad lands in trouble with watchdog

French Connection is to have its fcuk adverts vetted for the next two years, watchdogs said yesterday.

The move was imposed after a complaint about a poster campaign for the brand's radio station FCUK FM, which read: 'FCUK FM from pnuk to rcok and back. Non-stop fnuk. FCUK FM.'

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld the complaint, saying that because of the overall wording, readers would be likely to to interpret FCUK as a fourletter expletive.

It had already warned the company it would ban adverts which carried this implication. It imposed a similar ruling in 2001 for the company's fcukinkybugger.com campaign.

An ASA spokesman said: 'Hopefully, this time they'll learn their lesson.'