Konami ad compaign seen as racial stereotype and violence |
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After seeing Microsoft's ads for the Xbox360, we figured everything was fair game. Now, the Advertising Standards Authority, has upheld the complaint against an advertisement for Konami's Crime Life: Gang Wars, a multi-platform game, which claimed "it exploited racial stereotypes and glorified violence."In the advertisement, placed in the London edition of Metro, pictured five black men standing alongside each other in a street scene. Two of them were holding guns, while one carried a baseball bat and another held a hammer. The image was accompanied by the tagline: "Rule the streets or fall by the wayside."
After the publication of this advertisement the ASA received a complaint which set the investigation into motion. In their defence, Konami stated "the men featured in the advert were members of hip hop band D12, who also appear as the main characters in Crime Life: Gang Wars - a game about black, urban American gangs. D12 had approved the image for use, and that the tagline was a reference to the main objective for players of the game. The publisher admitted that the advert could be seen to suggest violence, but noted that it did not portray any specific violent act."
Metro defended the decision to print the advert by referring to a recent survey conducted by the newspaper which found that a large proportion of its readers play games. Metro also stated that they "believed people could distinguish between real life and games." Konami added that the majority of Metro's target audience is young, affluent commuters, so the ad was not considered to have the risk of serious or widespread offense. Konami added that there were no plans to run the ad again in future.
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Comments [refresh]
daft... i bet if they were all white no one would complain lol
it says, "didn't portray any specific violent act" so what was the big deal?
Well another group of middle aged white folk put their oar in about racial problems.
As an actual videogame retail shop owner who deals with the general public in the UK i can FOR A FACT state that aiming these games at young black and asian boys isn't racist, its targeting the games core audience.
Apart from the odd one or 2 white chav types all these type of games are bought by the ethnic minorities as they are simply violence and respect orientated. The most annoying thing is that having these type of games on the marketplace gives low life scum the opportunity to express themselves and gives the games core audience a voice in this country.
The worst thing Rockstar ever did was release the GTA series, at best it allowed chavs and scum something to play, at worst it brought the scum elements of modern society into the videogame community and allowed other companies to jump on the bandwagon with generic ethnic minority championing clones.... Like this piece of crap game
So well done to the advertising company on this one, your idea is spot on, it will work and its not being racist.... It's just highlighting the modern face of society.
For me personally i will be so glad when all this PC stuff ends, all it does is create racial tension in the first place, if everyone stopped being so sensitive and just got on with their lives what a better world we would live in
Peace & love folks
REV
Man PC world gone crazy!!..... ass on those mo fo's!!
(joke! also pc world should not be confused with the large computer retailer!)
it appears that no matter what you do or say someone complains... i find it confusing that you aren't allowed to portray stereotypes in videogames, there are games based solely around how brutally cruel, and strangely stupid german guards are in ww2 and no one sees fit to say 'hey my grandad was a german guard and he finds it offensive that he'd just run into a hail of bullets' ... anyone who's actually got a grandad who was a german guard, i'm sorry, it's just lets face it, more fictional germans have died in videogames than any other form of bad guy.
there were/are gangs of black men and kids even on the streets of the usa, so why is it illegal to make that into a subject for a videogame.
and glorifying violence! are these people that stupid? honestly how many action films are there where we're happy that a good guy has just blown away hundreds of minions?
i don't feel it's pc world gone mad, i just feel there are people out there who somehow feel 'morally responsible' for everyone else... and to them i say: 'go away'
wow. just wow. to all of this bull crap. Since we are on this topic.. Do you guys remember the Native American Indians association or whatever getting their feathers ruffled *no pun intended* about GUN? Well i actually just recently took the time to play GUN.. and um... okay at the beginning of the game.. you are killing and fighting what appear to be blood-thirsty Apaches. and later... you happen upon a rail-car.. and upon it up .. and FREE INDIAN PRISONERS THAT WERE GOING TO BE USED AS SLAVEs. An Apache chief approaches you and says something to the effect of 'Earlier.. you killed many Apaches'.. and you respond with 'And now i have set many free'. you then proceed to give FOOD AND WATER TO THE INDIANS AND HELP THEM. You are then allies with them and even help them do little sidequests. OBVIOUSLY THE INDIAN ASSOCIATION OF WHATEVER did NOT take ANY time to actually PLAY THE GAME that they were so vigorously demanding a boycott of for mistreatment of Indians. I just found that very hilarious. I bet if most of these people who explode over stuff in videogames ( like the people upset over Crime Life) actually took the time to sit down and play them and find out what they are all about ... yeah....
hm.. whatever..
GAMERS X RIGHTS!!!
Its obvios that its gona get you intruble if u put up posters of a game w/ black ppl w/ guns and stuf.. That is bad marketing. especialy for a gangster type of game. And promoting violence? wtf is up w/ that
Sure violence is fun on games. but dont advertise it to the public u dumbazzes. Look at GTA. Gta has very nice ads that do not look gangster style and stuf. That ad right there is hardcore.