THERE'LL be some people, possibly many, who'll regard Elgar Technical College headteacher Dr Graham Watts's campaign to remove a controversial advertising hoarding close to the school gates with amusement or bemusement.

He says the advert for a popular snack food outside his Worcester school - which screams out "hurt me you slag" - is offensive and sends out the wrong messages to students.

The campaign is tied in to a series of TV adverts whose humour clearly owes more to The Comedy Store than Carry On or the end of the pier.

We suspect that it won't have an effect on those children who already have a well-founded understanding of what's polite and what's not.

But there'll be others whose instinct is to use crude language and will now feel they have some kind of approval.

"We're desperately trying to invest a great deal of time in raising standards," Dr Watts says. "Posters like this are doing nothing to help that."

His reaction might not be understood in all quarters.

It might not have any effect on the makers of the hot food snack in question.

And the Advertising Standards Authority - which has already received 129 complaints - might well agree with the makers that it's meant to be "risqu in a humorous way" but not offensive.

In one respect, however, Dr Watts has already done his community a service by reminding us that, while there's room for the derogatory in our language, there's a time and a place for it. And this isn't it.