The 7Up Corporation is to immediately re-edit a US television advert after a large number of viewers rang to complain about a perceived racial slur against the Irish.
However, 7Up insisted that a two-foot tall leprechaun in the nationally broadcast TV advert reveals that he is a "myth" and not a "Mick" - a racial slur that angers many Irish Americans.
Viewers were particularly upset as the leprechaun begins doing a jig and humming an Irish ballad as he pronounces the word to a New York police officer, as if demonstrating his ethnic roots to avoid an arrest for selling soft drinks without a permit.
Ms Courtney Wallace, spokeswoman for the Texas-based Dr Pepper/7Up Corporation, said yesterday that the actor hired to imitate an Irish accent for the advert is to be recalled to the studio to retape the offending segment.
"It is a little bit hard to hear, so we are going back to re-edit it. We're not rewriting the ad but are going to go back to do a voice-over so its much clearer. We don't want anyone to think that he said Mick when he said myth," she said.
Ms Wallace said that the original voice-over on the advert had led to confusion among viewers.
"Consumers were not sure what he was saying. They wanted to make sure we were not being derogatory towards the Irish and, of course, we would never try to do that," she said.
The ad is one of a series of three featuring the green clad leprechaun being broadcast with youth orientated programmes on MTV, Warner Brothers and other US television stations.
In each, the short-tempered leprechaun is pulling a wagon through the streets of New York while trying to sell Dr Pepper/7Up's new drink, dnL, which gets its name from the shape of the brand name 7Up written upside down.
In the offending advert, a New York police officer asks the leprechaun if he has a permit for the wagon.
The leprechaun replies: "I'm not real, you moron, I'm a myth" and starts dancing a jig and humming a tune.
Ms Wallace said that the advertising agency that created the advert, Young and Rubicam of New York, had been instructed to re-edit the voice-over so the leprechaun is clearly heard to say the word "myth".