Wicked slogan hits new low
THE Attorney General and police will launch an investigation into Wicked Vans after complaints the budget rental company has gone too far by painting a highly offensive slogan in Japanese on one of its vans.
The slogan reads: "Lick my . . . . " and was interpreted for The Weekend Post by several Japanese people who now live here.
Premier Anna Bligh described the slogan as "totally offensive" and vowed to try to get the van off the road.
"I have asked police and the Attorney-General to investigate whether it breaches Queensland law and if not I’m happy to look at ways to rid our streets of this rubbish," Ms Bligh told The Weekend Post.
"The owners of the vans are grubby and acting irresponsibly."
Outraged reader Mark sent a photo of the van to cairns.com.au after his Japanese wife spotted it parked earlier this week in their Cairns street while driving their eight-year-old daughter to school.
"It’s terrible. If you walked around in a T-shirt with that written on it in English, you would be arrested," he said.
He said he and his wife had tried to stop their daughter, who can read Japanese, from seeing the van which was parked in the street for several days before leaving overnight.
"My wife was quite upset and wanted to do something about it. What if our daughter read it," Mark said.
"It just shows how unprofessional Wicked are."
Cairns resident Masa Shigano said he had seen the "lick" van last year and had written to the company and the Premier to express his fury.
He said he had also seen another van bearing a slogan "suck my . . . " van at around the same time.
"My 11-year-old kid started reading it and I got really angry as she speaks English as well," he said.
"The Japanese are nice but sometimes we have to stand up and say something."
Wicked boss Dave Kinkead confirmed the company had owned a van with those slogans.
"As far as I am aware it was resprayed about a year ago and the last word was changed to something non sexual," he said.
But Mr Kinkead could not confirm that the van had been resprayed or what was on every one of his vans because no database was kept.
A spokesperson for the Cairns office of the Consulate of Japan said it had the greatest respect and confidence in the ability of government agencies to take appropriate action about the slogans.
Wicked last month was condemned by Premier Bligh and other authorities after a van was spotted carrying the slogan "Save a whale – harpoon a Jap".
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Vulgar: The offending Wicked van was parked in a Cairns suburban street.
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