An independent brewery is set to ignore a ban for language deemed likely to cause "serious offence" from the UK's independent advertising watchdog.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concluded that a statement by BrewDog on its website was in breach of two advertising codes in relation to social responsibility as well as harm and offence.
One complaint was received by the ASA about the material which appeared on the home page of the Brewdog website.
The opening sentence read: "BrewDog is a post Punk apocalyptic mother fu*ker of a craft brewery." While the use of an asterisk was noted by the ASA, it was determined that it clearly represented a swear word which is generally considered "highly offensive".
"Serious offence" was also deemed likely by the ASA with the phrases, "corporate beer w****s", "rip you straight to the tits" and "Save up for a Luger and drill the b*****ds".
The tone of the page and use of "mother fu*ker" was concluded to be "gratuitous" language by the regulator. The ASA banned BrewDog from using the statement and told the brewery to avoid causing serious offence in the future.
The matter has also been referred to the Committee of Advertising Practice's compliance team.
But the brewery has announced it will ignore the ASA ruling and said they will put the statement back on their website.
BrewDog co-founder James Watt said: "We actually just took down the statement on our website to make room for the equity for punks stuff. Soon, we will be putting the statement back on our website.
"We believe in freedom of speech and artistic expression. We don't believe in mindless censorship.
"As for the ASA - those mother f*ckers don't have any jurisdiction over us anyway."
The ASA have sanctions available to use for companies that are non-compliant online.
They can name and shame them on the ASA website, they can arrange for paid company listings - which feature a link to offending material - not to appear in search engine results and the ASA can also place their own adverts along with search results for an offending company to highlight their non-compliance.
The ASA has said it is monitoring the situation but a spokesman said it would be "disappointing" if BrewDog was considering putting the statement back online.
In June, the brewery raised £1 million of investment in 24 hours through the sale of more than 10,500 shares with its Equity for Punks crowdfunding programme.
The company, which employs 187 people and is on course for a £20 million turnover in 2013, made 42,000 shares available for anyone to buy online at £95 each as it attempts to raise £4 million to grow the business.
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