A new French-Vietnamese restaurant was forced to remove its signage after concerns were raised about the restaurant's name being offensive.  The restaurant is named after the Vietnamese soup, "Pho," and the name of the town where the restaurant is based, "Keene."  When the words are combined, people felt that the restaurant's name, "Pho Keene Great," sounded like a profanity.

In response to the concerns, the restaurant ran a poll, asking whether people felt the name was offensive -- and apparently most people felt that it was not.  

Acknowledging that the name is a double entendre, the restaurant said that "we do not have any plans on changing our business name."  The restaurant said it is planning to meet with the Keene City Manager in early Februrary to work something out.  In the meantime, the restaurant is selling branded t-shirts to help finance its battle with the town. 

There are actually some good practice pointers here.  Whenever you're running a local promotion, you should ensure that you comply with the local rules that may apply.  For example, here, the City of Keene said that the restaurant hadn't gotten permission to post the sign.  It's also important to consider the audience.  That double entendre that may play well in New York City just might not play as well in small town U.S.A. 

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