---

Seven-second delays, canceled TV appearances and a general crackdown on risqué content has been the name of the game for U.S. television since Janet Jackson introduced her boob to the world during the Super Bowl.

But in the U.K., a controversial commercial is taking things in the opposite direction. The new Channel 4 ad, originally filmed to play in theaters, features a slew of TV stars--some British but most Yanks from such U.S. series as Scrubs, The O.C. and The Sopranos--answering the question, "What is your favorite expletive?"

....

Channel 4 execs originally intended to showcase the ad in movie cinemas, accompanying Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 2. But the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA), which oversees the "standards of cinema advertising" in England, rejected the spot, and Channel 4 began broadcasting it instead on FilmFour, the network's independent film channel.

"We can understand...why the CAA felt they had to turn it down. It does contain the highest number of expletives ever featured in an ad as far as we're aware," Channel 4 marketing honcho Bill Griffin told the Yorkshire Post. "We're delighted to be able to play it out on the FilmFour channel and confident hat it will be received by subscribers in the spirit in which it was intended."

Another spokesperson for Channel 4, which broadcasts British series as well as American-made shows like Friends, Sex and the City and Without a Trace, told the newspaper that the network had so far received "diddly squat" in the way of viewer complaints. But a U.K. media watchdog group leader is attacking the ad.

"I think this ad is disgraceful. Channel 4 should grow up; they are using it to generate controversy and publicity for a minority film channel," Mediawatch-uk director John Beyer told the Post. "This obscene language causes great offense and is calculated to cause controversy."

Duh. An ad created just to cause controversy? Consider this a story created just to give you an excuse to watch the controversial ad. Just point your browser to www.channel4.com/ads/index1.html and don't tell the FCC.

---

---

Originally posted by JasonF
I don't get it -- what are they supposed to be advertising? The fact that you can say all those words on Channel 4? The fact that Channel 4 is edgy and hip? Something else entirely?

I had no idea that Dr. Dorian was such a potty mouth. ;)

---

---

But the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA), which oversees the "standards of cinema advertising" in England, rejected the spot...

---

---

Originally posted by RoQuEr
can anyone link me to a downloadable version?

---