While some titles have caught flak in recent years for appearing on things like buses, we’ve never seen one turn up in such an inappropriate place.
This billboard, advertising the decidedly adult DNF and complete with censored cursing, appeared right next door to a Baptist Church in Venice, Los Angeles. Worse still, out of shot but directly across the street is Westminster Elementary School, which only runs from kindergarten to the fifth grade.
Thankfully, after City Councilman Bill Rosendahl contacted the billboard’s operator Lamar Advertising and let them know he’d received complaints, it was taken down.
Blood, Gore, Sex and Violence: Video Game Ads For School Kids [BanBillBoardBlight]
Top image courtesy of BanBillBoardBlight
Ezkaton
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 7:41 AMI’m not sure advertisers care about people who choose to believe in an imaginary entity.
Ojin
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 8:27 AM… huh… oh! Oh! I get it! It’s a wry statement on the fact you don’t believe in God! Aahahahahahahaaa! Oh, wow… wait, wait, my sides… hoo.
Man, that’s /amazing/! Did you think of that all by yourself? I can’t believe I’ve never seen someone post such a pithy quip about faith before!
You should really consider stand up. Or maybe journalism. Some kind of professional opinion-giving, certainly.
I bow to you, sir. I bow to you.
mattroe
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:18 AMHey, hey, Ojin, let the guy get a word in, I’m sure he’s simply bursting with more witticisms. Let the man speak!
Go ahead Ezkaton. Perhaps you’d like to make a remark about politics next?
Jeremy
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:25 AMWell played. Tip of the hat to you, sir.
Adam B
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 10:06 AMActually I think it’s a clever statement on that fact that others choose to engage in delusions.
mattroe
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 11:57 AMYou, sir, need to learn the difference between a delusion and a belief, no matter how incorrect that belief may be.
And people call religious people bigoted.
MarkD
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 11:42 AMI wonder if one day Harry Potter fans will just be as defensive when people quip about there being no hippogriffs
Ojin
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 12:16 PMI honestly don’t much mind of someone chooses to believe in God, Mohammed, Budha, to be a staunch Atheist, whatever: that’s really not my decision to make for them. I /would/ appreciate it if Atheists got a new script, though.
Like, hell, your Hippogriff comment. Same basic idea behind it, but that was at least a little bit funnier than the usual tired lines. ;p
Licketty Split
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 1:25 PMBut don’t you think you’re being a bit hypocritical when you say your tolerant of others beliefs but then turn around and berate someone for not believing in god?
MarkD
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 1:45 PMWe are dangerously close to a situation where Duke Nukem has inspired a serious discussion on religion, this is getting weird!
Ojin
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 2:13 PMI’d hoped the point was self-evident from my comment to MarkD, but I’m not berating Ezkaton for not believing in God. He can believe or not as far as I’m concerned.
What I’m berating him for is a near-rote repetition of overused arguments without any wit or originality. If I has $1 for every time I’d seen someone making a comment about “imaginary beings”, “magical sky wizards” or words to that effect, I’d have enough to pay for every game I want to buy this year.
Part of the reason I take umbrage at him doing it actually stems from a kind of hypocrisy – It seems nonsensical for someone to try to push me down the path to what is presented as ‘free thought’ by spouting rote phrases at me.
But mostly I’d just like to see some kind of new phrasing to the concept. Like I said, I have no real issue with MarkD’s Hippogriff gag. Same basic idea, sure, but at least spun a little and with some humor behind it that shows he’s not just vomited up the same damn buzzwords all over again.
MarkD
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 2:55 PMHey Ezkaton, promise to use new phrasing when they promise to release a bible reboot. :P
Atheism doesn’t actually need any wit or originally in its statements because its not trying to prove anything. Don’t you think complaining about someone using ‘near-rote repetition’ is a bit of a dangerous argument for a religious person? :D
mattroe
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 4:08 PMYou serious? I hear Atheists try to convert people WAY more than I hear religious people try to convert. *Agnostics* have nothing to prove. Atheism is one of the most passionate “religions” I’ve ever encountered.
MarkD
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 4:40 PMOh agnostic is just atheist without balls, but understandable in a world where religion has a bigger stick. You shouldn’t capitalise atheists in text as you have done there, it’s not a religion.
Haha I’m pleased to hear that! Maybe there is a chance for the species yet :P
Ojin
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:08 PM“Hey Ezkaton, promise to use new phrasing when they promise to release a bible reboot. :P”
See? If I were touchy, that’d be infuriating rather than /hilarious/. ;p
mattroe
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:33 PMNot really. It’s hypocrisy at its worst. People complaining about having beliefs shoved down their throat while shoving back twice as hard and five times as insensitively.
Chance for the species in my mind is if we just learn to shut up and keep it to ourselves if we can’t discuss it respectfully.
WOJAus
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 6:43 PMSeems to me you’re going a bit over the top for two words. Too bad he doesn’t have access to your obviously amazing vocabulary, Hero.
Welcome to the internet, where memes are a lauded form of expression and opinions are plentiful and cheap.
Do yourself a favor and try not to get too uptight next time you feel you’re confronted by unoriginality.
Ojin
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:09 PMYou should see me when I’m off my meds. ;p
mattroe
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:34 PM^ Meant in response to MarkD.
mattroe
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:35 PMOookay, Kotaku is screwed up all my replies.
My comment posted at June 28, 2011 at 9:34 PM was in response to my comment posted at June 28, 2011 at 9:33 PM.
MarkD
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 11:24 PMHaha how is saying there is to date absolutely no proof of god insensitive? the onus is on the believer. If you believe it, be confident. But not like, crusades confidence please. Like all science, I don’t actually care if there is or isn’t a god, I have no agenda. Im not sure it is actually possible to actually discuss religion ‘respectfully ‘, I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to argue against everything we’ve discovered about the observable universe, not when there are video games to be playing instead! :P
mattroe
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:35 AMBecause it’s not about whether there’s proof or not, that’s the definition of faith. Although, I’d actually say there’s more that *suggests* there is some sort of deity rather than nothing, but this isn’t really the place to get into it.
markd
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 11:06 AMWell that’s kind of the problem isn’t it, faith is not really used in other facet of life other than when it’s extremely convenient. There’s no proof there is or isn’t a teapot floating around Jupiter, should we assume there is one because some ancient people who thought the world was flat wrote a book that says there was?
If there was a god, Duke forever would have been freaking awesome. Now that’s a compelling argument :P
Karachi King
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 8:45 AMMaybe since they are advertising an imaginary entity, they figured there would be some common ground.
Awnshegh
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 8:41 AMOf course the replacement was an advert for shoes but worn by 2 semi naked women.But that’s ok. I actually think the DNF billboard is tame and in comparison to what I see every day on my way into work.
Jimu AKA Grimlock!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:45 AMBy doing this they just scored Duke a hel of a lot MORE advertisng.
Owen
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 9:53 AM…but why would you want to f♥ck a gun?
clint
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 10:32 AMyeah, a bit of a lost in translation.
WiseHacker
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 10:26 AMOh snap!
It goes to show one should be aware of the surroundings.
cryL
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 6:43 PMI’ve seen FAR worse innuendo’s on actual church billboards wtf. Forcing it to be taken down is pretty ridiculous.