The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has officially banned a series of adverts, including posters and TV ad, for Eidos' third person shooter Kane and Lynch: Dead Men.
Kane and Lynch has proven no stranger to controversy and Eidos was rumoured to have put advertising pressure on GameSpot, resulting in the firing of games reviewer Jeff Gerstmann. This is the first time the mainstream has cottoned on to the game however.
The ASA revealed that it has had 26 seperate complaints about the advertising campaign for Kane and Lynch, many of which cited concern about the depicted violence against women.
The print advert in question show Kane and Lynch standing over a gagged, crying woman while talking on a mobile phone and holding a shotgun.
"The majority of the complainants believed (the) ad was offensive, because it included shocking images, which condoned violence, particularly towards women," was the ASA's official comment.
Future Publishing also became involved in the debate as a number of the adverts had appeared in magazines such as Edge.
"Although we noted the image in the ads was not dissimilar to some of the images shown as part of the editorial content of Edge and Total Film magazines, we considered that the portrayal of violence it contained, with particular regard to the female hostage, was graphic and too shocking to be seen in any medium."
What do you think - legitimate complaint or useless waste of time for a game which was released some time ago? Let us know what you think in the forums.
Kane and Lynch has proven no stranger to controversy and Eidos was rumoured to have put advertising pressure on GameSpot, resulting in the firing of games reviewer Jeff Gerstmann. This is the first time the mainstream has cottoned on to the game however.
The ASA revealed that it has had 26 seperate complaints about the advertising campaign for Kane and Lynch, many of which cited concern about the depicted violence against women.
The print advert in question show Kane and Lynch standing over a gagged, crying woman while talking on a mobile phone and holding a shotgun.
"The majority of the complainants believed (the) ad was offensive, because it included shocking images, which condoned violence, particularly towards women," was the ASA's official comment.
Future Publishing also became involved in the debate as a number of the adverts had appeared in magazines such as Edge.
"Although we noted the image in the ads was not dissimilar to some of the images shown as part of the editorial content of Edge and Total Film magazines, we considered that the portrayal of violence it contained, with particular regard to the female hostage, was graphic and too shocking to be seen in any medium."
What do you think - legitimate complaint or useless waste of time for a game which was released some time ago? Let us know what you think in the forums.
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