One-third of people who applied for personalized licence plates with ICBC in 2022 were rejected, including “U2SLOW”, “GAS PIG”, and “LYTMUP”.
Last year, 9,467 people applied for personalized licence plates and 3,135 had the application rejected.
“Slogans are rejected if they don’t meet guidelines and criteria or if they’re deemed objectionable,” ICBC said in a news release. “For instance, if they’re discriminatory, sexually suggestive, abusive or derogatory in any language.”
There were 11 applications that were rejected due to being abusive, obscene, or derogatory in any language, including: “ASSALT” and “WT TRASH”.
Thirty-five were rejected for being sexually suggestive or having inappropriate connotations, 47 due to referring to religion, politics, public figures, dignitaries and law enforcement officials, eight because of intellectual property like trademarks, 60 because of references to drug or alcohol sales, and 95 for violence, criminal or bullying language.
Sixteen were rejected due to references to driving risks like: “2FST4U” and “ZOOOOM”.
The remaining rejections were for a variety of reasons including that the slogan was already taken, it could cause identification issues and it exceeds the character limit.
“We’ve seen increased interest in personalized plates in the last few years,” Sandy-Anne Dodig, ICBC’s manager of insurance operations support said in a news release. “Personalized licence plates can be a fun and creative way to express yourself, and are available for regular passenger vehicles, motorcycles, vans, light trucks and motor homes.”
The full list of rejections can be found here.
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Laura Brougham
