Kane & Lynch ad banned in UK
Complaints of violence towards women sees TV ad removed and print ads toned down
The Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has banned a TV ad for Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men after receiving 26 complaints, many of which were alarmed at the depiction of violence towards women.
The ASA found that the ads were irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence, with a poster and TV advertisement both breaching responsible advertising and TV Advertising Standards codes.
"The majority of the complainants believed (the) ad was offensive, because it included shocking images, which condoned violence, particularly towards women," states the ASA's adjudication.
Eidos argued that the TV ad were shown after the 9pm watershed, and that print adverts for the game were not intended to be seen by children.
Future Publishing was also drawn into the debate, as one of the adverts appeared in Edge magazine.
"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," stated the ASA.