An advert for Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been banned in the UK, after it received nine complaints which believed it trivialised sexual violence.
Call Of Duty is no stranger to controversy, with many of the games purposefully courting it – most notably the No Russian mission from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2. But the series’ adverts are only rarely a point of contention.
In 2012, an advert for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was banned from being shown during the day, due to scenes of ‘violence and destruction’ but now an advert for Black Ops 7 has been banned entirely in the UK, for ‘trivialising sexual violence’.
The advert in question, which is still available on YouTube (and was also shown on ITV and Channel 5’s on demand services), depicts fake officer ‘replacers’ at airport security, who have been drafted in because the real ones are off playing the game.
In the advert, a male replacer tells a male civilian he has been ‘randomly selected to be manhandled’. He then tells him to strip off, as the other female officer equips a glove and remarks, ‘time for the puppet show’. The final scene sees the man bite down on a handheld security scanner, as the male replacer says, ‘bite down on this, she’s going in dry.’
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received nine complaints over the advert, who claimed it ‘trivialised sexual violence’ and was ‘irresponsible and offensive’. Another two complaints believed the advert ‘encouraged or condoned drug use’.
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In response, Call Of Duty publisher Activision claimed the advert for the 18-rated game was ‘targeted at adult audiences only’ who have a ‘higher tolerance for irreverent or exaggerated humour’. As noted by the ASA, the publisher also said the humour, including the ‘bite down’ line, referred to discomfort rather than sex.
Additionally, Activision said the advert had been reviewed by advertising regulatory body Clearcast and approved with an ‘ex-kids’ timing restriction. They also claim the advert was not broadcast during or around children’s programming or content likely to appeal to anyone under the age of 16.
Despite these arguments, the ASA has banned the advert ‘in its current form’. In its ruling, it said Activision Blizzard were told ‘to ensure that their ads were socially responsible and did not cause serious offence, for example by trivialising sexual violence’.
The ASA ruled that because the advert ‘alluded to non-consensual penetration’ and ‘framed it as an entertaining scenario’, it ‘trivialised sexual violence and was therefore irresponsible and offensive’. However, the ASA found the advert was ‘unlikely to be understood’ as encouraging or condoning drug use, so this complaint was not upheld.
This ‘Airport Security’ advert is one of several live action promo clips created for Black Ops 7, with others showing ‘replacers’ in the roles of astronauts and baristas. The adverts star comedian Nikki Glaser, Terry Crews, and Jake Paul, amongst others.
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