The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is annoyed with Bono. As discussed in Friday's Wall Street Journal -- in an article that begins by slyly noting Bono's friendship with the now out-of-favour Paul O'Neill -- Bono's widely heard exclamation that greeted U2's Golden Globe award last year, f**king brilliant, led to an obscenity complaint, which was rejected by the FCC on the grounds that:
The word "f**king" may be crude and offensive, but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or excretory organs or activities. Rather, the performer used the word "f**king" as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation.
This exception has enraged FCC bosses and a predictable range of politicians, who are now talking about a steep increase in fines for obscenity. The article bills this as an achievement of Bono's, which seems odd because an increase in fines itself does nothing to change to the legal reasoning that got Bono off the hook in the first place. But what about that other word that Bono used, brilliant? At the rate corporations are seeking to trademark generic words, how long before Diageo is after him for infringing on the centrepiece of their new Guinness ads i.e. the repeated use of that word? Play the ad in full here [busted link; try here]. And cringe.
No comments:
Post a Comment