“A dream, a breath, a froth of f…ing joy.”*

Posted on March 18, 2008 | Filed Under digital content 

Fleeting expletives, I would think, are just that: fleeting. Uttered in one second, gone in the next, and quickly forgotten. Not so on US television, when the moral crusaders at the FCC are watching (see the previous posts here and here). And now the remarkable case of the hedgehogFCC v. Fox finally arrived at the US Supreme Court for good, when the petition for certiorari was accepted (see here for all documents) - the case will be heard in autumn.

The prospect of the highest US judges arguing about cow shit in a Prada purse and remarks like “Fuck ‘em” (which - according to the FCC - is bad when said by Cher on daytime TV) or “Fuck yourself” (which is ok when said by Vice President Cheney in the US Senate) gets the blawgosphere excited (for instance: here, here, here and here). I will not add any more to that, since it is obviously not of particular importance for European communications law. Let’s just suffice it to point to the next case slowly building up: just a few weeks ago the FCC fined ABC network stations for a “shocking and titillating” scene in NYPD Blue, broadcast more than five years ago (apparently it was a rather severe shock). In case you want to be shocked too, see the video here at the Website of the Parents Television Council (”For Educational Purposes only”), and read the FCC order (the latter seems more shocking to me than the former).

There is just one angle of the Fox-case I would like to point to: the imponderabilities of product placement. I am sure the makers of Prada purses paid a nice sum to Fox to have their brand name mentioned on prime time network TV, even in a sentence scripted as “Have you ever tried to get cow manure out of a Prada purse?” What they most likely did not expect at that time was that the product placement would extend to a Supreme Court opinion. Generations of law students - certainly an interesting target market for Prada - will read a US Supreme Court opinion where the luxury handbag is prominently mentioned. Will the product placement agency be able to charge extra for this?

* “A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.” - Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucree, Stanza 31

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One Response to ““A dream, a breath, a froth of f…ing joy.”*”

  1. “Fruity language” on TV, Radio, and before the Supreme Court? : contentandcarrier on November 4th, 2008 1:47 am

    […] on daytime TV? The case FCC v. Fox has generated a lot of interest (also in this blog: read here, here and here), and if you want to catch up on this case before the transcripts of the hearing […]

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