The Hanoi Bike Shop responded to complaints by saying the correct pronunciation was “Fet Fook” – meaning “Happy Buddha”.

In its ruling, the ASA said the phrase was unlikely to cause serious offence as it was obvious the intended pronunciation was different.

The sources of the complaints were two posters: one on a train spotted last October and one at a train station seen last November.

Each poster stated: “Phat Phuc…The Hanoi Bike Shop.”

One complainer said it was offensive and the other that it was inappropriate as children might see it.

Regarding the first complaint the ASA said: “However, we noted that the Hanoi Bike Shop sold Far Eastern cuisine, which both posters had made sufficiently clear.

“In the context of the posters, we considered that viewers who might have been offended by bad language were likely to recognise that “Phuc” was from a reference to Southeast Asian language, was different from the expletive and would not necessarily be pronounced in the same way.

“We therefore, concluded that the posters were unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.”

In response to the second complaint, it stated: “We considered that younger children who were unlikely to comprehend that “Phuc” was a Vietnamese word were also unlikely to read or pronounce it as the expletive.

“While some older children might have pronounced it as the expletive, given the context of an ad for a Vietnamese restaurant and that the word was taken from this language we did not consider that this made it unsuitable for them to see.

“We therefore concluded that the posters were not irresponsibly placed where children could see them.”