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ASA throttles Stranglehold ad

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UKPosted Jan 16, 2008 11:40 am GMT

UK's Advertising Standards Authority has clamped down on Midway Games TV ad, which it believes could "encourage and condone" violence.

An ad for action game Stranglehold has been banned in the UK after complaints were considered by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The advertisement shows a shoot-out between four men, and two complaints were received; one viewer believed it glamorised violence, whilst the other was concerned that it was being shown before the "watershed" hour of 9 p.m.

Clearcast, the UK company responsible for prescreening television ads, had deemed that the Stranglehold ad was acceptable to be broadcast after 7:30 p.m. It argued that the violence shown was stylised, unrealistic, and had a fantasy quality. It added that although bullets were constantly flying through the air, no one was hit, and there was no blood or gore shown.

However, the ASA believed that, "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."

It concluded that the ad must not be broadcast again in its current form.

103 Comments

  • Azwhtknight

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:18 am GMT

    "two complaints were received"....

    Your kidding right? They banned a game comercial because of 2 people? Where are the governments when hundreds of people complain about an IMPORTANT issue like say hunger, war, school funding, crime rates,....I could go on and on?

  • Chef_Bretz

    Posted Jan 18, 2008 3:42 am GMT

    Double standards.

  • Legolas22

    Posted Jan 17, 2008 7:06 pm GMT

    I'm pretty sure that the trailer for "No country for old men" has more realistic and "unsuitable" violence than a dam video game! its only the nut jobs that actually think, after killing some people in matrix style slow motion, they will go out and do the same in a school or the street! COME ON CENSORS! Look at the internet? more and more young people are aware that the world sucks ass and violence is everywhere, so what they gonna do? ban an ad for a game...because thats gonna stop young kids seeing violent things in movies and on the internet.

  • DEWMAN08

    Posted Jan 17, 2008 4:30 pm GMT

    "glamorised violence"? Pretty sure every action scene you see in TV or anywhere in entertainment does this A LOT.

  • Gackt55

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 10:43 pm GMT

    lol, and yeah why didn't they ban pac man! )

  • coolcat888

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 9:57 pm GMT

    @7thRonin
    I'm in for a mojito!

  • sinaps

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 9:22 pm GMT

    UK kids can play only tetris or ballance . i'm surprized that they didn't ban pac man... that game instigates to canibalism just kiddin'

  • Pete5506

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 8:05 pm GMT

    This is sorta dumb

  • 7thRonin

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 7:59 pm GMT

    violence in videogames is soooo last year

    anybody in for a mojito ?

  • T070Y

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 7:40 pm GMT

    UK citiezens can play only E rated games or what? they always complain about violence games

  • GodsPoison

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 7:37 pm GMT

    thats actually a good idea for a comercialVV.

  • MuscleCarMan

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 7:26 pm GMT

    there should be commercials airing now that say something like, " Everyday thousands of ideas and concepts are killed everywhere by censors and over reactive citizens. Stop the violence and do your part. Help protect freedom of speech." Or something like that

  • dbowman

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 6:08 pm GMT

    Clearly humanity is broken or f****d up in some way. There must be something about us that likes violence and shooting.... otherwise we wouldn't make and play games (or films) like this. So how the hell can we go on to ban the very things that we create.

  • GANGSTA287

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 5:07 pm GMT

    well... my my Europe has gotten soft.... I take back all the mean things i said about Canada... they are gonna end up 2nd on my bad### list...

  • ag1002

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 5:03 pm GMT

    Big deal. There are plenty of movie commercials that are much worse.

  • mullen15

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 4:44 pm GMT

    shoot out.... your joking... everyday on cable they have rated R movies so its just another way to attack video games about violence. this is so stupid, i can barley hold it in.....

  • 09231991

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 3:58 pm GMT

    acej2000 said - "The glamorization of violence is a beautiful thing in video games, it's art and should be seen that way."

    Man, you are absolutely right! This is what I don't get, Porn on the internet is free and explorable and open to anyone and thats not considered harmful but when A japanese guy gets into a shootout and says violence is his only option, thats harmful? Get the F#CK outta here! Thats major BS!

  • railz38539

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 3:52 pm GMT

    "I saw this commercial once; afterwards I ran out my house with a shotgun, shot 2 pedestrians; broke into a house, found a rocket launcher, stole a car, ran over a cop, shot a rocket at an ambulance WHILE driving, went to the mall, I entered the movie theater, saw "P.S. I Love You". What a Day...."

    Sounds like you were just playing Grand Theft Auto after seeing that commercial...but not when you saw "P.S. I Love You". That was just you going to the movie

  • Bgrngod

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 3:29 pm GMT

    @Kingjames11

    Marching over it's citizens in the name of censorship? Hello? The US is just as censoring as the UK is. We censor sex, they censor violence. Which would you prefer?

    I am pretty sure out "Forefathers" didn't have all of the gun problems that we have now in mind when they wrote the constitution. Back then, guns were all about self defense, not school shootings etc.

    And if you think allowing guns is going to do ANYTHING to stop our Government you are way wrong. Our Government wouldn't be even remotely hindered at doing whatever they want just because a few loons are packing AK-47's in the forest. For us to stand a chance we would need to add the "Right to bear tanks/missiles".

    That aspect of owning guns has already been removed from us, why not finish off the job and ban them from criminal use as well?

  • markdzebissov

    Posted Jan 16, 2008 3:28 pm GMT

    "I saw this commercial once; afterwards I ran out my house with a shotgun, shot 2 pedestrians; broke into a house, found a rocket launcher, stole a car, ran over a cop, shot a rocket at an ambulance WHILE driving, went to the mall, I entered the movie theater, saw "P.S. I Love You". What a Day...."

    That's just sick. Especially that last thing you did.

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