A McDonald's billboard promoting a spicy burger was too hot to handle for a Johannesburg blogger but it has got the green light from the advertising watchdog. The ad, for the McFeast Spicy burger, features local Indian comedian Karou Charou and the payoff line "Hot like a twin turbo".The comedian's fans praised the advertising campaign, which includes a television commercial featuring Karou with comedians Jai'prakesh Sewram and Simmi Areff on his Facebook page, but one man said the ads were racist.Johannesburg author and blogger Hamish Pillay complained to the Advertising Standards Authority of SA about the billboard.He said Karou's appearance in the ad suggests it is okay to refer to Indian people by the derogatory term "charou". He said the payoff line was a reference to the stereotype that Indians love fast cars.But the ASA doused Pillay's fire, ruling that exaggerated use of a stereotype in this instance did not breach the advertising code because it was not likely to cause serious, widespread or sectoral offence.It agreed with McDonald's that the ad is "light-hearted" and that "no suggestion has been made that [McDonald's] is refusing to serve Indian customers, or that it has encouraged people to regard Indian people in a lesser light".In its response to the ASA, McDonald's submitted that the word "charou" does not appear on the billboard and that Karou's stage name was his own choice.It added that Karou's name was a tongue-in-cheek reference to his race and that he is known for humour of that kind."If an artist of another race with a similarly offensive name was used in a brand advert, would we deem it okay?" Pillay said.Karou thanked his fans for their support of the advertising campaign on Facebook.McDonald's SA undertook to comment but had not done so by the time of going to press...