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Bully Ads Are A-OK With ASA
Posted by Leigh Alexander at 8:20 AM on July 10, 2008
31 complaints against a TV ad for Take-Two's Bully: Scholarship Edition were dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority. The complainants said that the ads "glorified and trivialised" bullying, but the ASA found that the ads themselves were not in violation of any standards.
According to GamesIndustry, the ASA did find the game distasteful, but was not glorifying violence because of its "comic and exaggerated" nature:
"Although many might find the name and content of the game to be in poor taste, the content of the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence", it said.
ASA dismisses Bully advertising complaints [GamesIndustry.biz]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
DukeOfPwn
Posted 8:42 AM 10/7/08
@Heliophage: We've got reports coming in of 12-year-olds beating five kittens to death with boxing gloves. A game called Animal Boxing, where you fight animals in a ring, was found in there home, creating speculation that this was the motive for the assault.
DukeOfPwn
Dragnipur
Posted 8:36 AM 10/7/08
Boo Hoo from the ASA!
Dragnipur
zkotaku
Posted 8:36 AM 10/7/08
revenge of the nerds.
zkotaku
Boudabras
Posted 8:36 AM 10/7/08
Because an adult staring down at a kid is surely something to complain about. 31 complaints shouldn't warrent any type of investigation over an ad...now if it was something like 10k then we might have something.
Boudabras
EloraHRanma
Posted 8:35 AM 10/7/08
First Thompson's recommended disbarment and now this... RockStar's having a field day.
EloraHRanma
Heliophage
Posted 8:34 AM 10/7/08
Wait until they see Animal Boxing.
Heliophage
SegevRaz
Posted 8:33 AM 10/7/08
Wow..I can't believe this... only 31 complaints?
SegevRaz
Quicksilver4648
Posted 8:30 AM 10/7/08
Wait? You mean... people overreacted?
Quicksilver4648
SmokeFemur
Posted 8:23 AM 10/7/08
And whom, I ask, could survive the vaccume of space? Surely no resident of tamriel.
SmokeFemur
NoBullet
Posted 9:18 AM 10/7/08
In poor taste? You have to go to classes and make sure youre not late. Are they insisting that kids should not go to school? That's disgusting.
NoBullet
Heliophage
Posted 9:47 AM 10/7/08
@DukeOfPwn:
In further news, VHS copies of the 90s television show When Animals Attack! were found in a shrine-like corridor hidden in the bedroom of one of the children. Should the children still be held accountable for their actions, the parents have compiled a list of moral appeals to suggest that this is, clearly, someone else's fault.
Stay tuned for more details as they arive.
Heliophage
ecurtz
Posted 10:02 AM 10/7/08
"[G]lorified and trivialized" bullying? That's unpossible. They should have paid more attention in class instead of beating up little kids for their lunch money.
ecurtz
Tmoney02
Posted 2:40 AM 11/7/08
@Boudabras: "31 complaints shouldn't warrent any type of investigation over an ad...now if it was something like 10k then we might have something."
Exactly and yet even our FCC not only investigates but punishes stations for infractions which pretty much no one cared about. Groups like "family matters" will have their members send in a letter to complain about something and the FCC goes and puts huge fines on stations, even though they only received between 50-150 letters, all preprinted and exactly the same. 100 packaged complaints out of 300 million people is cause for investigation and fines?!?
/end rant
Tmoney02
Captain_Sarcastic
Posted 3:08 PM 11/7/08
I can't believe people are still complaining about Bully, you'd think they would find another crusade by now.
Captain_Sarcastic