OMFG banner ban for Glee

October 2010

PART of an advertising banner for a city comedy club had to be removed following complaints from members of the public.

The Glee Club banner stretching across the Broadmarsh Centre bridge had read ‘OMFG The Glee Club has finally arrived in Nottingham’.

Bosses at Westfield, which manages the shopping centre, contacted the comedy club’s owner Mark Tughan after it received complaints about the abbreviation, ‘OMFG.’

“It’s ridiculous,” he said.

“How can anyone be offended by an abbreviation? What about TFI Friday when that was on the television, were people offended by that?

“What’s most annoying is that they asked us to change it after just two people complained.”

Linda Singleton, 60, from Granby, was one of them.

“I felt it portrayed Nottingham in a poor light, to have something as crass as that,” she said.

“I’ve never complained about something like this before but I felt they’d over stepped the mark. Yes it’s an abbreviation but it stands for something. You don’t read it as ‘OMFG’, in your head you’re reading it as the full phrase.”

Her age wasn’t a factor, she said.

“I know it’s in common use on the internet but my son, who is 25, thought it was going too far as well. Maybe a lot of people don’t know what it stands for but I do because I use the computer a lot.”

She added: “It wasn’t just the implied swearword but in one fail swoop they managed to offend all religions.”

The banner has been changed to a more sedate ‘LOL’.

“Which is much more appropriate,” said Linda.

Broadmarsh Centre manager Matthew Slade said:

“We have different people who deal with advertising on our premises so we don’t always get to see all the artwork in advance.

“As soon as we realised the connotation of the four letters they’d used we took action to get it removed as quickly as we could.”

He added: “We do not condone the use of the ‘F’ word or even the implication of it. We wouldn’t want to offend people, by carrying advertising on our property, in that way.”