Susan Arendt
Culture

UK Bans <cite>Burnout Dominator</cite> Ad

Complaints from the public have prompted the Advertising Standards Authority to ban an ad for Burnout Dominator in the UK. Thirty-seven separate complaints were lodged about the poster, which featured a crashed car and the tag line "Inner Peace Through Outer Violence." EA’s stance was that the image was meant to imply that playing Burnout […]

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Complaints from the public have prompted the Advertising Standards Authority to ban an ad for Burnout Dominator in the UK. Thirty-seven separate complaints were lodged about the poster, which featured a crashed car and the tag line "Inner Peace Through Outer Violence."

EA's stance was that the image was meant to imply that playing Burnout Dominator was a good way to relieve real-life stress, but the ASA wasn't buying it:

We considered that the images of a car that seemed to have crashed at high speed and a burning tyre, together with a reference to violence, could be seen to condone a violent lifestyle, anti-social behaviour or dangerous driving. We concluded that the ad was irresponsible.

Normally, I think these sorts of complaints are little more than the blatherings of oversensitive ninnies, but in this case, I must admit I really do see their point. Though EA's explanation of the ad does make sense, there's definitely a lot of room left for interpretation, especially if you have no idea what the Burnout games are all about.

Violent advert banned from Tube [Metro, via Next-Gen]