Bloody Hell

Thursday Mar 9 18:08 AEDT
British broadcasting authorities have banned the use of the latest advertisements promoting Australian tourism, which feature the slogan "Where the bloody hell are you?"

Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said in a statement the ban by the UK's Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre was comical.
"How anyone can take offence at a beautiful girl in a bikini on a sunny beach inviting them to visit Down Under is a mystery to me," Ms Bailey said.

Brits ban our 'bloody' adTourism Australia managing director Scott Morrison said he understood UK free-to-air TV stations had been refused permission to use the ads.

"We know from our research and all the research we did over there that people are not offended by this, particularly the people we are trying to talk to," Mr Morrison told ABC radio.

He said he was not upset by the ban and hoped that publicity surrounding it would provide a further boost for the campaign.
"Everything helps," Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison said the ban, which applied only to the use of the word "bloody" on commercial television, was "a marketer's dream".
"The PR (public relations) that will be driving the campaign in the UK next week is going to be unprecedented," he said.

"We would have preferred the ad to run the way we first made it, but we can still run it the way it is cut now, which says 'Where the hell are you?'," Mr Morrison said. It will just have that slight adjustment to it with the word being omitted from television advertising."

The campaign will be officially launched in the UK on Monday.
©AAP 2006