Vice City sparks protest in Boston |
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This started out just concerning Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, but the people concerned decided to blow it out of proportion, or so it seems. Here is what happened:The Boston's public transit system, which is operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, helps augment income by accepting advertisements from various companies to promote their products. One such company is Rockstar Games, which entered into a contract with MBTA to put up poster ads of the said PSP title. Then out of nowhere, local advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, suddenly held protests demanding that the ads be brought down.
Aside from the other hundred signatories, 60 influential people signed the demand letter including the mayors of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts legislators, religious leaders, top healthcare professionals, children's advocates and academics. Their "collective wisdom" states, "Advertising on the MBTA enables Rockstar Games to reach countless children, those who ride the trains and those whose neighborhoods the trains pass through."
Not contented, the advocacy group also demanded MBTA to not accept advertising for M-rated games in the future, as well as R-rated movies and music CDs with explicit lyrics. Interestingly, the Boston police themselves joined the protest together with outspoken critic Jack Thompson.
MBTA Director Daniel Grabauskas promised to look into their agency's ability to block violent contents in the future, but refused to pull the advertisements as of the moment, citing First Amendment concerns. The GTA poster ads had raised U.S.$ 115,000 for MBTA and the contract with Rockstar Games will expire by the end of this month.
Via Joystiq
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Comments [refresh]
Parents could monitor what their children are playing! Just because a kid sees the add doesn't mean he gets the game all of the sudden, geesh.
religious people are so stupid.
Now they're attacking advertising????
First, there's no way the court is going to take this seriously.
Second, who even actually sits and looks at the stupid adverts in the transit? Bring a goddam book with you if you're so bored on your way to work or somewhere.
Third, R is doing nothing wrong. And the kids are already aware of the game's existence. Even if they see the advertisement, if they don't already know of GTA, then they probably aren't interested to begin with.
Forth, it's the parents damn job to monitor what games their kid plays.
When I was a kid, there where cigarette, alcohol, condom ads on the bus/train. You didn't see me running out and buying all of those things. (well not until a couple of years later, but it still had nothing to do with the ads)
Unless the ad actually depicts violence in it, I think they're overreacting. But even then, those same kids are going to see the television ads which clearly depict violence, and nobody's saying anything about those.
I swear that all these lazy welfare people really piss me off. Because they don't work and they live off the government they have nothing to do. So they go out the streets and look for all of society's flaws and blame anyone or anything for it when they are the first that are guilty about it. What, did this Vice City Stories ad has a beautiful women with her legs wide open masturbating her hot wet shaved ***** with a dildo saying "GTA: Vice City Stories, If you buy it I'll let you eat it" or something? If not, I don't see any reason at all to take it off...
This is quite sad. I cannot believe that people are protesting against such a thing as advertisement. Without advertisement, a lot of things would be much much more expensive. Take television for example, your cable bill would be much higher each month if broadcasters could not show the commercials they are contracted to play. And for this incident, those advertisements help keep tax low, since they pay for a large part of the subway costs. The products that are rated M, R, and contain 'offensive/inappropriate' lyrics are the ones that would bring in the most money to that particular thing.
Ads can be rightfully placed on public places, given they do not break certain laws and moral limits. I am sure that the Vice City Stories ads do not depict violent shots from the game, or other things that make it a Mature rated video game. Therefor, it is not doing anything wrong on the subway.
Another thing, is that parents these days rely too much on the media to teach their children. Maybe if they would stop being lazy, get up, talk with them more often and watch less TV, they would not have to worry about anything. On top of that, until they are 16, the kids money inflow is directly controlled by the parents, since the kids cannot work before that age, legal at least. So, the parents choose what the kid plays/watches/listens to, not the media. Sure it could effect the consumer choices and wants of the children, but that does not mean that they will get what they want. It is all up to the parents, not up to the kids.
And as my final thing to say, I find it quite sad that people would protest over this, instead of other more important issues that is not even covered by the media. For example, something I have not seen protests for in a while is anti-government monitoring. (New means of getting records kept on you, identification, etc) Now THAT should be a concern to people, not ads. And Jack Thompson is a joke, who manipulates people with key words that catches the uneducated publics attention, getting him support on his anti-video game war. (Reminds me of a certain President)
stupid mother *****ing protesters, they all deserve to die!!
*****ing idiots.
How about taking drugs off the streets and feed poor children instead of putting money and effort into some half-assed cause.
plus their kids are dumb, following americans tv rating system to let the kids view whatever is appropiate makes a person dumb. you gotta go international to be smarter, cause our tv broadcast plan are to make your kids dumb and thus causing them to imitate game violence.
Surburban kids do dumb things most, city kids tend to understand game and reality more.
Couldn't agree more.
I actually have Jack thompsons cell and work numbers and they are 3056664366 Yes there is a 666 in his work number lol but his cell is 3055883005
Oh yeah, Cause we all know a poster is harming something, Sigh.
Funny how the author of this QJ entry chose to end the post with a "Buy Vice City Stories" link.
interesting way to put it...
Hypocrites in Boston and hypocrites on QJ. lol
that man is a liar. there are other advertisements which he has refused to run based solely on their content.
don't believe me? look it up:
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/13/thread13613.shtml
it sucks to live in the USA
why dont you guys who live in USA join up a protest against these peoples? i bet you all are more than the " hundred signatories"
people contrast each other?... always
do obscure things?... most of the time
only US citizens? NO... all human breeds.
think people think.
think of the whole scenario and not just a part of it.
"just because you are born stupid doesnt mean you have to live your life being stupid."
It'a also interesting how all of this is included in your limited English :)
As for the advertisement, it's nothing new, same with the "protest". Nothing to see, move along people.
i do not agree with the protests either, but your reasoning is pretty ridiculous. if you even read the article it said that the mayor and police department have signed the petition. i have a feeling they are not unemployed and not on welfare.
you have mental issues. see someone now before it's too late.
it has nothing to do with their wealth, but more along the lines of everybody in boston *****ing sucks. we just passed a bill that said "NO" we do not want to be able to buy something as harmless as WINE in a grocery store (you have to go to a liquor store). that pretty much sums it up.