UK Burnout advert 'irresponsible'
The advert for Burnout: Dominator has been labelled 'irresponsible' and is being withdrawn by EA.
The advert in question was the subject of thirty-seven complaints and features a crashed car under the slogan 'Inner peace through outer violence'. An ASA spokesperson said of the advert;
"The complainants described the advert as offensive as it condoned and was likely to encourage violence, dangerous driving and anti-social behaviour such as vandalism... The Advertising Standards Authority determined that the implication of the advertisement was likely to cause serious or widespread offence."
EA has, as reported by GameIndustry, decided to withdraw and redesign the advert in order to please the ASA, who have kindly (and somewhat patronisingly) offered advice in the matter of designing national adverts.
To us, it seems a little pointless to kick up such a fuss for an advert for a game which was released last spring on a system which is now a generation out of date - but then again, the advert doesn't seem that bad to us when you consider some of the other advertising mistakes which other companies have made in the past.
The advert recall comes just a week after the BBFC banned the multi-format Manhunt 2 from being released in the UK, citing " sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged" as the main reason for the ban.
Is the recall of this advert another sign of a growing nanny culture, or is it reasonable to recall an advert which causes offence to a minority? Make your mind up and tell us your conclusions in our forums.
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31 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyThink about it.
Did any person's violence ever achieve inner peace?
Maybe after they'd been in jail long enough to think about their actions, but not otherwise.
H.B.
If you crash your car with extreme violence. You will probably be resting peacefuly afterward...
Something like this
I don't think that EA's ad. come under truthful nor decent.
H.B.
it can defined as " sustained and cumulative casual road rage in the way in which these accidents are committed, and encouraged"
This game can be blamed on the rampant increase in accidents.
BAN IT!!!!!! /sarcasm
Sure we can winge about being told by the powers that be what is and isn't acceptable, but equally I'd say that everyone on this forum, no matter how open minded, has certain limits and will be exceedingly offended by something. And I would suggest that you generally should have the right to go about your life without offensive things being put right in front of you. And if the advert offended 37 people enough to get off their collective arses and complain about it, it probably offended a hell of a lot more who couldn't be bothered. When something is thrust into your living room like advertising, it has to be acceptable to the vast majority of people. If it's something like a game that you have to go out and buy, knowing full well what the content is, then obviously the bar can be raised a fair bit higher.</DevilsAdvocate>
I really cant see how someone in EA's marketing department didn't go "you know this slogan may give out the wrong idea and suggests that violence is a good thing". Dont get me wrong i love a bit of violence in my games as much as the next guy but the slogan doesn't say VG violence it just says "be violent and aggressive and have inner peace". Not smart, not cool.
Not to be outdone by Coke when Pepsi started a marketing campaign in Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."
We all complain about being victimised, but in this case, I think the ad itself was doing the community more harm than the authorities' attempts to ban the ad. Just the ad. The ASA can't ban a game.
OK, to us the ad is witty, but out of context it's offensive to some folk, and while I'm all in favour of offending people, it should at least have some other value... this doesn't. As the article said, the game was released a while back anyway. That's not a reason to defend the ad, quite the contrary! It's too late for the ad to serve its intended purpose, and it's bugging people, so why bother with it?
37 complaints is actually reasonably high here, especially for a low-circulation ad (well, I haven't seen it yet).
Take the recent Eastenders furore. A woman's chained to a bed & threatened with a caesarian, with no pre-show warning, high percentage of young viewers... 80 complaints. 37 for an advert, then, is pretty huge.
I'd say therefore it's indicative of a relatively high proportion of people who see the ad being irked by it. 5000 people in the US? Well, the US is BIGGER. Also, the US culture is more... outspoken.
Sure, billboards might be worse... so they're bad. That doesn't make this good.
Am I the only one who doesn't know what this means? Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics, Pacific Coast Bus Service, Polychlorinated biphenyls, Post Critical Belief Scale? Help me out here!
I'm going with Political Correctness Bull S**t
And one is lockable.
H.B.
Your friend obviously got stopped for having the knife on display - not illegal, but it'll get you stopped. I keep my knife in my pocket and haven't had a trouble with it in years. Buy him a shirt and tell him to keep it untucked, thus hiding the leatherman pouch.
I carry an Opinel No.8(high carbon blade), and a generic non-locking wooden handled knife bought at a fishing town for £7.00.
H.B.
Mine was Politically Correct Bull S**t but the above quote conveys what it means.