SEGA Adverts Get Banned

SEGA has had a couple of Condemned 2 adverts banned... five and a half months after the game came out.

The reason? The Advertising Standards Authority, which investigates complaints about advert content, received a whopping nine complaints. The ASA reports that most of the complainants thought the ads "condoned violence and was offensive and distressing. One complainant said the ad was inappropriate for broadcast at any time."

One advert was being broadcast post-9pm, the other post-11pm. They were given the go-ahead for those slots by Clearcast, which is licensed by Ofcom (the regulator of UK communications industries) to pre-approve adverts. The content that was so offensive, in the ASA's words, was "scenes of violence including a man punching another on the floor and blood splattering on the screen as a man was beaten with a club. The scenes were filmed from the view of either the assailant or the victim... The ad ended with a close-up of an eye, surrounded by blood, looking through a spy hole."

The advert shown in the later slot also featured sounds "which seemed to express pain and the force of their exertions."

SEGA's response was to note that the ads were intended to accurately reflect the content of the game, which was rated 18 by the BBFC. It also said that it put the ads in slots around shows it believed would attract the intended 18+ audience.

The advertising of games is receiving increased scrutiny these days, following the Byron Review. With this in mind, it may be that the ASA is verging on the side of over-caution to... well, cover its arse.

Given that Condemned 2 came out in early April, however, SPOnG can't imagine SEGA is too worried about the ban at this point.

For more on the game, see SPOnG's dedicated page.

^{Source: ASA}