The Advertising Standards Bureau ruled that the Englishmen were right to be offended by an advertisement for beer that negatively stereotyped and demeaned English people.

The radio advertisement for Tooheys brewery and its New Supercold beer employed a group of Englishmen to sing the tune of Land of Hope and Glory using various synonyms for whinge, including whine, moan, slag and complain.

The advertisement ended with a voiceover saying: “Introducing Tooheys New Supercold, served so cold it’s a Pom’s worst nightmare.” The bureau ruled that negative words in the advertisement detracted from what it said was the otherwise playful nature of the word Pom. Instead, Pom had been given “a derogatory and almost hostile meaning”, Mark Jeanes, the acting chief of the bureau, said. The advert has been withdrawn.

Last month British People Against Racial Discrimination, the organisation campaigning for the removal of the advert, said that the word Pom was derogatory. David Thomason, the group’s spokesman, said: “The Oxford Dictionary classes Pom as being derogatory.” Mr Thomason said that he believed that there was a fashionable wave of derogatory insults against the British. He cited the behaviour of Australian cricket fans towards the English on the current Ashes tour.

“The songs the Aussie supporters sing talk about how ‘We can’t get near your body because of your smell, your body odour, your bad breath, your buck teeth, your whingeing — have you got some soap?’, ” he said.

“The worst you hear from the Barmy Army is that Aussies are sheep sha****s .”

His group also contested another version of the advert that had been made for television audiences. It featured footage of an overweight, pale man, wearing a Union Jack T- shirt, cringing in fear at the offer of a cold beer. The advert was withdrawn before the action against it could proceed.

Based upon legal precedent, it is unlikely that the word Pom will be wiped from the Australian public lexicon.

The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has twice considered whether the word is derogatory and has ruled it safe on both occasions.

In its latest ruling, issued in September, the commission sanctioned the continued use of the word provided that it was not accompanied by other offensive comments that were racist or unlawful.

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