Video game ad featuring suicide bombing on zombie island ruled too violent
A TV commercial for a video game featuring a couple who blow themselves up in the face of a zombie attack has been banned by the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) following complaints.
In the Dead Island Riptide ad, a young couple stranded in a shipwrecked sailboat on an island infested with zombies look lovingly at each other as zombies start to break into the boat. The ad shows gas canisters, before the man sparks his lighter igniting a gas explosion.
Then the ad closes with the image of a dead man hanging from a palm tree next to the slogan “Dead Island Riptide” dripping with blood.
Bloody Wowsers are at it again. Don’t like the ad? Don’t buy the game. It’s an R18 game (thankfully we finally have the rating).
Here’s the line from the ASB that you should take note of:
“The Board noted that the advertisement was viewed on Pay TV during „UFC Unleashed‟ and considered that the advertisement is aimed at a mature audience and the content is not inappropriate for an audience of „UFC Unleashed‟ which would be unlikely to include young children.”
“If your kids are watching this ad in this timeslot for this show, you have failed as a parent in any case.” – basically.
What hogwash! The ASB is completely out of date and certainly not in touch.
There was an ad for a bread brand on TV not so long ago that showed a kid using the sun’s rays intensified through a magnifying glass to incinerate small people as though they were ants. When that was complained about they said it was merely depicting harmless fun!
The board clearly struggles to differentiate between reality and fantasy. I was always under the impression animated violence was ok?
We also helped launch this game, I wonder what ramifications it has for our promo material?
http://au.ign.com/videos/2013/.....event-wrap
Most hilariously, the complainant isn’t personally impacted – they are citing a hypothetical third party issue – “I think that this could be very traumatic for people…”
Moronic.
This is the bit that sums it up for me:
“I think that this could be very traumatic for people who have experienced the suicide of a family member by hanging (or any other means).”
So this person is not complaining on their own behalf, but on behalf of people who they imagine might be offended if this has happened to them. For this sort of person, hanging themselves might be a good place to start.
Thank you ASB for having a backbone against companies that spew out toxic waste as “games” that is killing the minds of our young and you adults. Breath hope not hopelessness!