A Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 advert that screened on YouTube and on streaming services for ITV and Channel 5 has been banned by the UK’s advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The ad shows a ‘replacement’ airport security guard frisking a man and asking him to remove “everything but the shoes”, before a female guard snaps on a rubber glove and gleefully adds, “Here comes the puppet show.”
The Advertising Standards Authority received nine complaints from people who believed the ad trivialised sexual violence.
The ASA acknowledged that there was no explicit imagery in the advert, but the humour was “generated by the humiliation and implied threat of painful, non-consensual penetration of the man”.
They concluded the advert “trivialised sexual violence and was therefore irresponsible and offensive.”
Activision has clarified that the advert was not shown around children’s programming. Black Ops 7 has a PEGI 18 rating for “graphic violence, decapitations, dismemberment, strong language,” so it should not be sold to children.
We scored Call of Duty : Black Ops 7 a 6/10 in our review. “Black Ops 7 really demonstrates the difficulties of Call of Duty’s yearly release schedule and going back-to-back with its sub-series,” said Stefan.
“It’s not as rushed-feeling as Modern Warfare III was, that’s for sure, but it’s also not a consistent experience. The multiplayer and Zombies are solid continuations from last year, but there’s not too much excitement in that, especially after the energy-sapping co-op campaign and Endgame.”
Source: BBC News
