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ADVERTISING regulators have cleared an advert for a Glasgow restaurant's special "Phat Phuc" menu.

The decision follows complaints by two people about the Hanoi Bike Shop's poster at locations in the city centre and rail stations.

The poster features a picture of a Buddha set in a cloud and it advertises a four-course, £15.95, noodle menu entitled Phat Phuc.

It also proclaims: "Get your noodle on! First Tuesday of every month four delicious noodle based dishes for £15.95."

The complainers to the Advertising Standards Authority said the slogan sounded like a swearword when spoken and was not appropriate for display where children could see it.

But restaurant bosses claimed that in Vietnamese, Phat Phuc was pronounced "Fet Fook" and meant Happy Buddha.

The ASA agreed and said that despite the word 'Phuc' 'sounding similar to the expletive f**k', the posters could still be used.

It said: " The ASA understood that the word “happy” in Vietnamese was correctly spelt as “Phuc” and although it was pronounced as “Fook”, we acknowledged that it sounded similar to the expletive "fuck".

"However, we noted that the Hanoi Bike Shop sold Far Eastern cuisine, which both posters had made sufficiently clear.

"In the context of the posters, we considered that viewers who might have been offended by bad language were likely to recognise that “Phuc” was from a reference to Southeast Asian language, was different from the expletive and would not necessarily be pronounced in the same way.

"We therefore, concluded that the posters were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence."

The ASA also said that children were 'unlikely to comprehend that 'Phuc' was a Vietnamese word were also unlikely to read or pronounce it as the expletive'.

It said: "We acknowledged that while the expletive had not been used, the two words, depending on the pronunciation, might sound similar.

"However, we considered that younger children who were unlikely to comprehend that “Phuc” was a Vietnamese word were also unlikely to read or pronounce it as the expletive.

"While some older children might have pronounced it as the expletive, given the context of an ad for a Vietnamese restaurant and that the word was taken from this language we did not consider that this made it unsuitable for them to see.

"We therefore concluded that the posters were not irresponsibly placed where children could see them."