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"Stranglehold" Ad Banned for "Realistic Violence"
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by Jordan Yerman | January 17, 2008 at 05:42 am
663 views | 17 Recommendations | 6 comments
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We've heard of games getting banned, but the ads for those games?
An advert for a computer game has been banned from television. The advert for Stranglehold had realistic violence, constant gunfire and condoned violence, according to ad watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).The ASA responded to two complaints about the promotional clip for the game, which is endorsed by martial arts director John Woo. One person complained that the advert glorified gun violence and could affect susceptible people. Another said their three-year-old son had seen the ad when it was shown before the 9pm television watershed.
The advertising agency behind the ad, Picture Production Company, said it believed it was clear the footage was animation and not realistic, and that nobody was seen to be shot because bullets were fired into the air in the clip.
The ASA did not accept its arguments.
The ad for the Stranglehold game, which is rated 18+, had been cleared for broadcast after 7.30pm by Clearcast, the former Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre.
Says the ADA (Advertising Standards Authority):"The ASA noted that the
shooting was almost continuous throughout the ad and considered that
the violence depicted, although computer-generated, was realistic in
appearance. We considered the voice-over, which stated "Honour is his
code. Vengeance is his mission. Violence is his only option,"
suggested that it was honourable to seek revenge and that violence was
an acceptable solution to a situation.
We considered the ad was
likely to be seen as encouraging and condoning violence. Because the
issues raised by the ad could not be addressed with a timing
restriction, we considered the only solution was to withdraw the ad
from transmission completely." (Source)
What's interesting is that there are only two complaints listed for this issue, as opposed to widespread outcry.
(Yes, I added the trailer over to the right, as well as a second clip without a voiceover... I didn't think it was that bad- clearly not realistic. SHould your three-year-old see this, calmly explain that people cannot fly, nor can their eyes independently focus to shoot two separate moving targets)
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Jordan Yerman
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 06:10 on January 17th, 2008
Jordan, I must say I don't get it. You'd think there'd be more concern about the violence in the game rather than in the advertisement for the game. I was appalled when my teenaged nephew brought one of his video games to my house, which shall remain nameless, on one of his sleepovers .
This game gave points for carjacking, killing and mugging, ahem, ladies of the evening. Now, there was a balance. You got points for doing a humanitarian sort of thing, like taking someone to the hospital, just not as many!
at 06:50 on January 17th, 2008
Yeah, looks like this game kind of pales in comparison to, say, the Grand Theft Auto series.
at 07:15 on January 17th, 2008
All I could think of was how well they rendered Chow Yun-Fat's face, and how much it looked like a 1980's HK action flick (and I'm kind of a fan of that sort of x-treme escapism)... it just didn't look real enough to be to be considered unfit for airing. As Karen said, the issue would ostensibly be more with gameplay itself than the advert, but clearly the ASA disagrees with me!
at 07:23 on January 17th, 2008
Andy Lau (Hong Kong's Tom Cruise/Justin Timberlake) appeared in a film called Fulltime Killer... and, as a promo, his website hosted an online sniper game! I remember thinking, "Wow, no way a western star's website would have this..."
at 09:27 on January 17th, 2008
I can see where this is coming from. Kids that aren't allowed to play these games because of the violence are still seeing it on TV as an ad. Reasonable. BUT: I wonder what would happen if Global was approached by two people to take down adds for 'House' or 'Terminator: the Sara Connor Chronicles' for realistic trauma and violence... hell, they don't even fly.
at 12:00 on January 17th, 2008
Good to know. Its pretty much the same as a movie trailer so if its getting the same attention as the latest Die Hard trailer I don't have a problem... other wise it would make me a little uncomfortable.