Staffordshire Building Society has been banned from using the advertising straplines ‘No Staffordshire. No bull’, and ‘A no bull sort of mortgage’ on Virgin FM. The ban has been enforced by the Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC) despite the fact the adverts have been running for two years in local and national campaigns.
Staffordshire adopted the strapline when it began using the Staffordshire bull terrier as its brand icon in 2000. The RACC decided that ‘bull’ was ‘a shortened version of an offensive word’. The RACC said the society could use ‘No Staffordshire. No bull terrier’ but it declined.