UK Advertising Standards Authority bans Stranglehold ad

January 16, 2008

Realism has, for the most part, been touted as one way to get across the idea that a game is good. This approach works well in video games, but in the advertising world, if a game looks too real, and is deemed to be too violent, then you can expect the ad to get the axe.

That’s exactly what happened earlier today over in the UK, as the Advertising Standards Authority banned an advertisement for John Woo Presents Stranglehold (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) because it was too violent and realistic for broadcast on television. More on this in the full article.

The Advertising Standards Authority of the UK recently banned a television advertisement for Midway’s John Woo Presents Stranglehold (Xbox 360, PS3, PC), citing that the video was too violent for broadcast.

According to a Reuters report, the ad featured four men engaged in a shootout, with a voiceover saying, “Honour is his code. Vengeance is his mission. Violence is his only option.”

Despite the ad being wholly computer generated, the ASA deemed the advertisement as too realistic. Said the ASA in a statement,

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.

Picture Production Company, the makers of the ad, countered that the footage was edited to show that no characters had been shot, also mentioning that they believed it was clear that the footage was computer animation and not real-life violence.

In any event, we’ve managed to actually find a copy of what appears to be the advertisement itself. We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to whether banning the ad was deserved or not.