- (Reuters) -- A cartoon television commercial which shows
George W Bush mistaking a toaster for a video recorder has been banned
in Britain for ridiculing the US president.
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- An advertising watchdog said today that the advert, for
a satirical cartoon show, was offensive. The clip shows a grinning Bush
setting fire to a toaster as he tries to play a video at the White House.
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- It also features Tony Blair fetching a ball tossed by
Bush -- a reference to the British prime minister's reputation among critics
as Bush's unquestioning poodle in world affairs.
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- "We found that ... President Bush might find the
portrayal not to his liking and therefore offensive," Uisdean Maclean,
director of the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC), an industry-funded
body which vets TV ads in Britain, told Reuters.
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- The BACC said the producers should have sought permission
from Bush to use his image before lampooning him.
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- The makers of the 2DTV show rejected the criticism, saying
the ads amounted to little more than a "gentle ribbing".
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- "It seems absurd," producer Giles Pilbrow told
Reuters. "We are much tougher in the programme."
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- Adverts face tougher guidelines than programmes in Britain,
which means full episodes of 2DTV will still be shown on the commercial
channel ITV1 and repeated on the cable network ITV2.
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- Rows over Bush's intelligence are nothing new. A senior
aide to Canadian prime minister resigned on Tuesday after describing Bush
as a "moron".
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- Websites devoted to Bush's most publicised gaffes, or
"Bushisms", have sprung up on the internet.
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- Choice examples include "they misunderestimated
me", "is our children learning?" and "terriers and
bariffs" instead of tariffs and barriers.
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