FCUK no more: Thank heavens for that!

On the imminent disappearance of a well-branded logo…

It is cheering news that the French Connection retail chain is abandoning its notorious brand slogan FCUK. It was remarkably successful as a marketing gimmick. But it is successful no more. French Connection's half-year profits have dropped by 68 per cent - down from £16.2 million to £5.1 million.

True, the decline in profits probably has more to do with the availability of cheaper textile imports from China and Asia than with a public outcry against the proliferation of the FCUK logo on so many tee-shirts and other items. When you can buy all sorts of fashion confections for a fiver at Primark, other retailers are taking a hit. But the disappearance of the FCUK logo seems a welcome by-product all the same.

It is not that there is anything fundamentally wayward about swearing, in itself (as is noted elsewhere on these pages). But certain points about swear-words must be made: (1) register and context are important - doing it with your mates, or in the privacy of your own motor car is different from doing it, say, at Buckingham Palace when meeting the Queen. And (2): the written word is different from the spoken word. When FCUK appeared so ubiquitously as a slogan it lowered the tone of public communication.

And yes, some of the variations on the theme were witty, albeit in a similarly vulgar vein: viz., the black tee-shirt favoured by young men which said: "Safe Sex? Go FCUK yourself." Or the Irish variation sold in Dublin and Cork markets: "FCEK - the Irish Connection."

But the joke wore a little thin: and the slogan was a weary reminder of the mixture of verbal aggression and inarticulate communication that marks much of what we would call street life, or life on public transport.

Loud users of the f-word may not actually be more aggressive than other individuals: but its constant reiteration comes over aggressively, and as a reprimand it certainly is used aggressively (as in "F--- off," in response to a polite request to pick up litter).

All said and done, I'd rather have free speech than the Deeply Offended tendency seeking to ban what is dislikeable: but I am also entitled to dislike, personally, the in-yer-face approach of the FCUK logo, and entitled to be pleased that it is to be dropped.

And what could be less cool - in the sphere of fashion - than last year's slogan?

The Times: 3 October 2005