Social Marketing Censorship?

When you have kids, you naturally censor yourself when you’re around them (or at least you try to - sometimes you just let an expletive slip out). But when you’re in marketing, is there an obligation to keep it rated PG?

“Crispy Frickin’ Chicken” isn’t exactly an expletive but it sent a PA family over the edge when the following image appeared on a billboard in their hometown of Harrisburg.

While I snickered at Sarah Silverman’s “I’m F*cking Matt Damon” on late-night TV, it was quickly and widely distributed over the Web within days (current count of this version: over 7.8 million views). Jimmy Kimmel came up with the rejoinder in his equally as funny/disturbing “I’m F*cking Ben Affleck” (currently at just over 4 million views). So, this content isn’t remaining in the sole domain of late-night viewing.

There are always going to be sensitive eyes & ears about any variety of things. The politically-correct movement is always trying to change our phraseology so no one gets offended, but the reality is, someone is always going to be offended by something. My question is: with the ease of syndication, embedded videos, and widgetized content, is their anything we can do to minimize the exposure of tiny eyes and ears to this stuff? Or is doesn’t it matter any more?

As to the above, I guess this family won’t be eating chicken fricassee any time soon. Maybe they’ll be frickin’ Jimmy Kimmel…