What’s quickly becoming clear is that in order to effectively pander to ever-fickle tastes and trends, it’s important to swear a lot. Or at least, pretend to swear. As we live in a land where profane words remain inherently evil, this means an abundance of vowels and consonants and a sort of third-grade approach to public discourse.

This idea has started to be embraced big-time in TV network ad/promo/marketing departments. TV Land premiered a new series this week titled “The Big 4-0,” whose promotional campaign included the slogan, “Embrace the F-Word.” The CW is teasing next Monday’s return in original episodes of its youth-skewed hour “Gossip Girl” with a series of titillating promos and print ads that feature its characters in the throes of sexual bliss along with the on-screen acronym “OMFG!”

It seemed odd to me that the CW would be making a BFD out of the Official Meeting Facilities Guide corporate planner, until it was pointed out that in this context it actually stands for Oh My Fucking God! — or perhaps the PC equivalent, Oh My F-ing God!

Somewhat astonishingly, one still can’t utter the ever-popular term “fuck” on those channels that reside mostly in the single digits on your cable system. Meanwhile, a few clicks away, they’re actually engaged in the act itself. But this logic matters little to either those Neanderthal watchdog groups who so generously protect us from ourselves, or to the FCC (a.k.a. the Federal Censorship Commission).

NSS.