Sverdlovsk Region Arbitration Court refused to declare the ruling of the Federal Antimonopoly Service’s Sverdlovsk Region division invalid, the spokesperson for the FAS reports.

The FAS’s regional division stated on August 11, 2009 that the advertisement of a newly built living quarter in Yekaterinburg was improper because of the slang words used. The use of slang is actually forbidden by Article 5 (part 6) of the Federal Advertising Act.

The division placed an enquiry with A.M. Gorkiy Ural State University’s Chair of Ethics, Aesthetics, and Theory & History of Culture in order to get an expert opinion on whether the word in question (‘Crikey’) could be seen as being pejorative, obscene, or offensive.

The academic experts came to the conclusion that the word was actually offensive and stood for some obscene and offensive images and expressions; therefore it would be illegal to use it in an advertisement.